Batasang Pambansa plenary. —MALACAÑANG FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Leaders of the House committee on appropriations have debunked claims that Congress has confidential funds (CF) amounting to around P1.6 billion, saying that these are lumped under extraordinary expenses and therefore are not of the same category.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, panel chairperson and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, and senior vice chair and Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo maintained that while the funds were presented in the same category, they are different in nature since extraordinary expenses are “fully auditable”.
“Squarely, wala pong confidential funds ang Congress. ‘Yon pong sinasabi na P1.6 billion ay extraordinary expenses,” Quimbo said.
“Kasi ang heading ay confidential, intelligence and extraordinary.So magkaiba po ‘yong confidential dun sa extraordinary.‘Yong extraordinary po ay fully auditable. Which is different from confidential and ang Congress ay wala po no’ng confidential,” she added.
According to Quimbo, extraordinary are similar to funds used for calamities, or unforeseen circumstances.
“‘Yong extraordinary po ay ‘yong katulad po halimbawa ng expenses during calamities, so that is an example of extraordinary expense.‘Yon pong kakaiba po, parang gano’n,” she noted.
Co meanwhile said that it’s blatantly fake news.
“Hindi siya confidential,” Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe said.
“In short that’s fake news,” Co added.
Discussions about confidential funds allegedly lodged with Congress came after blogger and international relations expert Sass Rogando Sasot claimed that P1.6 billion of the country’s proposed P5.768 trillion funds for 2024 are the legislative’s CF.
Sasot was asking lawmakers why they did not pay attention to such funding.
Earlier, the House’ small committee formally decided to remove funds from several civilian agencies like the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), allocating these instead to agencies involved in securing the West Philippine Sea.
Asked if these amendments can be carried on to the bicameral conference committee, Co said these are already set in stone as the Senate appears to agree with the House’ point of view.
“Ma-ano niyo no’ng nag announce kami ng we’ll realign the confidential fund, nag agree kaagad, nag bow down kaagad ang Senate.First time po ‘yan na sabi ng Senate, we’ll follow what the House said, and Senator Risa nabasa ko pa, na (she said) we will follow our colleague,” Co explained.
“And I heard nag executive committee kaagad sila.That’s their decision, so parang I think it’s already a done deal,” he added.
READ: Solons open to redirect CIFs to defenders of West PH Sea
For the Senate, Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. debunked such claims clarifying that under the leadership of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, the legislative body has received zero secret funding.
“These social media posts are deliberately misleading and maliciously presented by some personalities who seek to malign and tarnish the reputation of an institution currently taking a long, hard look at the nature of confidential and intelligence funds and the government agencies that deserve to have them,” said Bantug.