Sen. Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero
MANILA, Philippines — The P5.2 billion in intelligence funds that Congress allocated in the 2023 national budget would be put to good use by funneling these to relevant state agencies which can establish an “actionable database” of individuals involved in contract killings, Sen. Francis Escudero said on Monday.
Escudero made the proposal as senators approved two resolutions condemning the brazen assassination on Saturday of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, who was gunned down by armed men, some of whom turned out to be former soldiers.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros also filed a separate resolution seeking a Senate investigation into the spate of political killings in the country.
According to Escudero, the Marcos administration should conduct an “all-out war against gun-for-hire syndicates with the full might of intelligence funds.”
He said the intelligence funds, one of the most contested budget items in the General Appropriations Act, “should be tapped in creating an actionable database of these killers.”
“Killings eventually become a revolving door phenomenon if we do not neutralize the actors now and in the long run, fix the kinks in our justice system,” Escudero said in a statement.
“Only the identification and dismantling of groups of hired killers can assassinations be stopped,” he said.
Escudero, a former governor of Sorsogon, lamented that contract killings had practically become a “cottage industry in the Philippines” as he warned that “copycat killings” might ensue if these criminal incidents would remain unsolved.
“People get emboldened if they see murders go unsolved. If the perpetrators are not arrested, it incentivizes future acts,” he said.
VP intel funds questioned
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Hontiveros had previously questioned the propriety of allotting confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) to certain government offices whose mandate did not include security-related activities.
Among them was the office of Vice President Sara Duterte, which received a whopping P500 million in CIFs, an allocation that amounted to nearly half of the total average annual budget of her predecessor, former Vice President Leni Robredo.
Duterte received a separate P150 million in similar funding as concurrent secretary of the Department of Education.
Pimentel, who had backed Duterte’s decision to shun the International Criminal Court’s probe into the drug war killings, said the rash of assassinations was a grim reminder for the country to “revisit a lot of things, from human rights education to law enforcement and detective work all the way to our overall policy on guns.”
“Our criminal laws will only have a deterrent effect if the people see that they are enforced fairly and effectively,” Pimentel said.
Degamo’s murder, he added, should be a “challenge” to President Marcos and the Philippine National Police in addressing criminality.
Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva sponsored a resolution expressing the chamber’s condemnation of the series of violent attacks on local politicians and private citizens.