Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s last two years in Malacañang were in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. During this period, the government was heavy-handed in dealing with the health crisis in the country—it deployed fully armed law enforcers and military personnel to the streets and villages to apprehend violators of health protocols.
Several controversies also hit his administration during the crisis. Remember the Pharmally story? Remember the dolomite beach in Manila?
It was also a time when the National Government borrowed money to help fund its pandemic response.
According to the recent Commission on Audit (COA) report, the Duterte administration spent P2.25 billion in confidential funds and P2.25 billion in intelligence funds in 2021. The Office of the President’s combined P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) was P1.73 billion more than the combined P2.769 billion outlay of the Department of National Defense (DND) and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
COA defines CIF as “pertaining or related to surveillance activities,” such as usage of money for purchasing information for peace and order, renting transport vehicles for confidential activities, and renting of safe houses.
Both the DND and DILG are part of the Executive Branch. The two departments are responsible for maintaining the country’s peace and order and making it safe from criminal elements and other threats to its security.
Had the Duterte CIF been allocated for Covid-19 response, the borrowings of the Philippine government could have been P4.5 billion less.
The problem with this confidential and intelligence fund is that the public will never know how it is spent.
If it is necessary to allocate CIF to combat rogue elements, why not give it to government agencies that directly deal with them—the DND, which supervises the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the DILG, which directs the Philippine National Police? There is also the National Bureau of Investigation, which is under the Department of Justice.
Giving CIF to the offices of the President and Vice President is redundant. The taxpayers’ money can be spent somewhere else and enhance the government services to the people that need them badly.