Trillanes questions lack of detailed budget listing of 6 offices under OP

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV questioned on Tuesday the lack of specific budget allocations of the six agencies under the Office of the President (OP) covered by the intelligence and confidential funds.

The six agencies are the National Coast Watch Council, Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, National Coast Watch System, Anti-terrorism Council, Presidential Commission on Visiting Forces Agreement and Presidential Complaint Center.

“They didn’t allocate specific budget for these offices,” Trillanes said during the hearing of the Senate committee on finance.

“Without those resources we won’t be able to expect those offices to perform well because in the first place, they don’t have enough funds,” Trillanes added.

The committee, chaired by Senator Loren Legarda, approved in about 40 minutes the OP’s proposed P6,031,018,000 budget for 2018, which was 70.10 percent lower than this year’s P20-billion budget.

The 2018 proposed budget for the intelligence and confidential funds was P2.5 billion, which was the same as last year’s approved funds, Trillanes said.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Deputy Executive Secretary for finance and administration Rizalina Justol and Deputy Executive Secretary for Internal Audit Alberto Bernardo, among others, attended the committee deliberations.

Bernardo said they had not received any problems in terms of the intelligence requirements.

“We haven’t received problems on intelligence requirements,” Bernardo said.

“Hindi pa ba problema yung sa Marawi?” Trillanes quipped.

Trillanes then asked the OP representatives to ask these offices to send a request for funding to the OP.

“Agencies covered by the intelligence and confidential funds should submit their request for funding to the OP,” said the senator.

“Gusto ko makita na natin ang specific projects nila so they can be proactive in fulfilling their mandates,” Trillanes added in an ambush interview after the budget hearing.

Once the OP allocates enough funds to the six agencies, Trillanes said the government could then hold them accountable if they did not perform well.

“But if they have enough funds we can hold them accountable,” Trillanes said.

“Please mag-allocate kayo dun. Make these offices work and they can only work if they have funds, if they have resources,” he added.

Trillanes also pointed out that the clear allocation of funds to these offices would allow them to “proactively plan” of fund utilization.

“Meron silang baseline ng confidential and intelligence funds para they can proactively plan kung paano gagamitin yun,” the senator said.

“E ngayon parang they will be going to office of ES (Executive secretary Medialdea) with a begging pole hoping na bibigyan sila ng kailangan nila. Yan ang problema dito,” he added.

Justol said the OP, as of August, had spent P800 million from confidential funds and P800 million from intelligence fund, out of their P2.5 billion budget for 2017 allocated to intelligence and confidential funds.

“We have spent P800 million for confidential and P800 million for intel as of August,” Justol said when asked by Legarda how much funds have been used by the OP.