Palace won’t realign intel funds

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Friday indicated that it’s not inclined to give in to calls for the realignment of P600 million in intelligence funds being pushed for President Benigno Aquino under the proposed national budget for 2012.

Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond Palatino said half of the amount should be realigned to public tertiary education and health.

“When you look at the budget that the Palace submitted … the biggest allotment is already for social services,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters.

Valte said the government’s intelligence funds have already been rationalized under the proposed national budget.

“The agencies that obviously had no need for any weren’t given intelligence funds so we already rationalized the use and they can be sure a big amount of our budget would also go to social services,” Valte said.

Asked if the proposed realignment would be unlikely, Valte said, “Our budget wasn’t prepared quickly.”

“We thoroughly prepared (the budget)… We still employ zero-based budgeting approach so we look at what should be spent for and how much should be spent,” Valte said.