MANILA, Philippines — The proposed 2024 national budget transmitted to the House of Representatives on Wednesday contains P4.3 billion in confidential funds and P4.9 billion for intelligence funds across all government agencies, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.
During a briefing after the National Expenditures Program (NEP) was transmitted to Congress, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said these numbers are almost similar to the 2023 budget levels.
“Confidential and intel fund: for 2024 the confidential fund — this is across all agencies — P4.3 billion, and the intel fund is P4.9 billion and I think the amount is the same as the 2023 level. Almost the same,” Pangandaman said.
Pangandaman later said that the P4.3 billion confidential funds and the P4.9 billion intelligence funds, combined, can be found in the following agencies:
- Office of the President – P4.5 billion
- Office of the Vice President – P500 million
- Department of Education – P150 million
- Department of National Defense – P1.7 billion
“‘Yon lang ‘yong mga major; we can provide the breakdown though makikita niyo siya sa online,” Pangandaman said.
(That’s the major agencies with the said funds; we can provide the breakdown, although you can also see it online.)
When asked if it was dangerous to provide big intelligence and confidential funds to these offices due to the limited checks that can be done on them, Pangandaman said that the Commission on Audit (COA) had set guidelines on how to use the funds.
“Alam niyo po ‘yong confidential and intel funds, meron naman pong guidelines ‘yan from COA on how to use the funds. Hindi naman po siya budget na pagkabigay, they can disburse it and use it, meron din pong dokumento na sina-submit po sa COA and then may mga breakdown din po ‘yan when we request the budget,” she noted.
(You know, for these confidential and intel funds, there are guidelines set by the COA on how to use the funds. It’s not like a budget they can immediately disburse and use it when given. There are documents that they need to submit to COA, and there is a breakdown when we request the budget.)
Earlier, the NEP was handed by Pangandaman to House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez in a ceremony in just nine days since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his second State of the Nation Address.
Initial information from the DBM showed that the proposed budget is 9.5 percent higher than the P5.267 trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the enacted budget for 2023.
As mandated by the 1987 Constitution, the education sector gets the highest allocation in the proposed 2024 national budget with P924.7 billion. This is higher than the P895.2 billion approved in the 2023 GAA.
Public works or infra programs get P822.2 billion, lower than the allotted P894.2 billion in 2023. Allocation to health is also down, from P314.7 billion in the 2023 GAA to P306.1 in the 2024 NEP.
However, the proposed allocation for defense is up from P203.4 billion in the 2023 GAA to P232.2 billion in the NEP. Transportation (P106.0 billion to P214.3 billion) and social welfare (P199.5 billion to P209.9 billion) allocations increased too.
READ: Proposed P5.768-T 2024 budget nearly done, may be submitted days after Sona — Pangandaman