Senate approves OVP proposed budget for 2024

THE Senate Committee on Finance approved on Monday, September 4, 2023, the proposed P2.385 billion budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for 2024.

The OVP’s request for P500 million confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) took a spotlight in the deliberation, which only took about an hour and a half.

The agency’s CIF is higher than the combined P438.2 million CIF allocated for the Department of National Defense and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) by the National Government for 2024.

Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio said they are not insisting on having confidential and intelligence funds but it would be easier for them to work with such especially in monitoring the safe, secure and successful implementations of their programs, projects and activities such as the construction of a vice presidents' museum and an OVP permanent office, as well as free bus rides, tree plantings and feeding programs.

“The OVP can only propose the use of confidential funds based on Joint Circular 2015-01 but we leave it to the decision and discretion of Congress that has the power of the purse to decide whether to grant confidential funds to our office,” she said.

"We can only propose but we are not insisting. We can live without confidential funds but of course, our work will be much easier if we have the flexibility of confidential funds in monitoring the safe, secure, and successful implementations of the programs and projects and activities of the OVP," she added.

Intelligence is being used for information-gathering activities of uniformed and military personnel, and intelligence practitioners that have a direct impact on national security. These may only be released upon the approval of the President and agencies are required to submit a quarterly accomplishment report on the use of the funds.

Confidential expenses, on the other hand, may be used upon the approval of the department secretary for surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support its mandate or operations.

During the hearing, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel questioned the release of P221.4 million, which was charged by the Malacañang to its contingent fund to the OVP.

Duterte confirmed that they received such an amount from the Office of the President when they requested confidential funds in August 2022.

She said the funds were granted in December 2022, P125 million of which were liquidated as confidential funds.

Pimentel noted that confidential funds are not in the line budgeting of the OVP in 2022.

"It’s nothing, it’s zero. It’s not even mentioned in the line budgeting for the OVP and yet at year’s end calendar 2022, we will now have an entry [of] P125 million charged to a line which did not exist at the very beginning," he said.

"We requested it from the Office of the President and it was granted through the Department of Budget and Management. I think the Department of Budget and Management can better answer the question on the transfer of funds from their source to the Office of the Vice President," Duterte said in response.

Senator Risa Hontiveros said the transfer of such allocations should be investigated as it is clearly “unauthorized and illegal.”

In a statement released following the deliberation, Hontiveros cited Section 25(5) of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution that states, “No law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations; however, the President, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the heads of Constitutional Commissions may, by law, be authorized to augment any item in the general appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations.”

"In the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2022, there were zero items for any confidential funds earmarked for the Office of the Vice President. Ano ito, multo? May ghost transfer?" she said.

"So while it is true that the law allows the President -- among certain other officials -- to realign or transfer appropriations which have become savings, these savings cannot augment a non-existent item in the GAA," she added.

Hontiveros noted that confidential funds are not cheat codes that can be used to blatantly violate existing laws and regulation.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Office of the Executive Secretary said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the release of the funds that are intended for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses of the OVP, such as Financial Assistance/Subsidy (P96.424 million), and confidential funds for its newly created satellite offices (P125.0 million, chargeable against the FY 2022 Contingent Fund).

It cited the Special Provision No. 1 under Fiscal Year 2022 Contingent Fund.

"The President is authorized to approve releases to cover funding requirements of new or urgent activities of NGAs, among others, that need to be implemented during the year," the OES said.

"VP Sara, who was newly elected then, needed funds for her new programs for the remaining period of 2022. The President supported this initiative and released the funds, with the favorable recommendation of DBM," it added.

Last week, the House Committee on Appropriations swiftly terminated the deliberation on the proposed budget for the OVP as a courtesy to the second highest official of the country. (SunStar Philippines)