‘Give up Comelec intel fund’

MANILA, Philippines—A former official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has called on his once colleagues to give up their intelligence funds, saying that such an allocation had no place in the poll agency as it was not part of the military or any law-enforcement body.

“It is very clear. The intelligence funds should not even be there in the first place,” said former Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman, a vocal critic of the poll body.

In an interview with reporters, Lagman said the intelligence funds allocated to Comelec officials could be considered an equivalent of the controversial pork barrel, formally known as the congressional Priority Development Assistance Fund.

“It’s really like the pork barrel,” he said. “Before, when I was a commissioner, I was given P1.25 million and just by signing a simple paper, it would mean that the P1.25 million was mine,” he said.—Jocelyn R. Uy