THE House of Representatives (HOR) has cut down the requested confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) of the administration under the 2024 National Expenditures Program and the Senate has adopted the reduction, Senator Sonny Angara said Wednesday, November 8, 2023.
During the Senate deliberation on the proposed P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024, Angara said the HOR reduced the CIF allocation to P9.82 billion, P300 billion lower than the P10.1 billion request of the administration.
“The House reduced it, your honor, and we adopted in the Senate committee report the House recommendations,” he said.
Of the proposed P5.768 trillion budget for next year, which is 9.5 percent higher than the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and 21.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), P5.77 billion were listed as intelligence funds and P4.864 billion for confidential funds.
The Office of the President (OP) will get the biggest chunk of the CIF at P4.5 billion, which is almost 50 percent of the total figure.
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), which are both under Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio, will get a total of P650 million CIF.
The HOR said in October, though, that it has realigned P1.23 billion worth of confidential funds for 2024 to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (P300 million), National Security Council (P100 million), Philippine Coast Guard (200 million) and Department of Transportation (P381.8 million) to boost the country’s efforts in addressing various issues in relation to securing the territory in the light of recent harassment of China in the West Philippine Sea.
Among those which were stripped of confidential funds were the OVP, Deped, Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The following agencies will still receive the following amounts for the augmentation of maintenance and other operating expenses, which are not confidential in nature:
* DepEd -- P150 million for the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education
* Office of the Ombudsman -- P50 million
* Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources -- P30 million
* DFA -- P30 million
* DICT -- P25 million
Senate Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III welcomed the reallocation of the confidential funds, as well as its reduction.
"And better, still realign and then the total amount reduced. That’s a good point also because what we're watching for is the proliferation or the multiplication of agencies requesting for it," Pimentel said.
But Senator Imee Marcos, a staunch ally of Duterte, said there is no finality yet in terms of the allocation of confidential funds.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa also expressed support in reinstating the allocation of confidential funds to the OVP and DepEd.
"Alam nating may confidential fund ang Office of the President, why not give confidential fund to the Office of the Vice President?" he said in a television interview.
"'Di naman dapat nating i-zero. Kung i-zero natin 'yan, ginawa n'yong inutil, sinong makikinabang? 'Yung enemies of the state,” he added.
He said confidential funds are vital especially to the DepEd amid the fight against insurgency.
Underspending
Meanwhile, it was also discussed during the deliberation that 24 percent or P1.27 trillion out of the total P5.268 trillion budget for 2023 has not been spent yet.
The agencies that contributed more in the unobligated amounts were the DICT, Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Tourism (DOT).
Angara said among the reasons for underspending were issues in procurement, unsuccessful bidding, delay in the delivery of procured goods and checks that are yet to be disbursed due to preliminary work for social protection programs.
He said the Department of Budget and Management is already briefing the Malacañang on coming up with a catch-up plan.
He said underspending may be addressed by conducting early procurement activities, provision of capacity building and training for procuring offices and adopting the Integrated Financial Management Information System that will allow real-time transaction monitoring across agencies.
Senator Risa Hontiveros also urged government agencies with poor spending performance to come up with a catch-up plan.
“We have to do so much, amid a very tight fiscal space. Like many countries in the post-pandemic era, our fiscal situation is characterized by high debt and high deficit. We need to better manage our national debt and the deficit, but more importantly, set spending priorities that raise growth -- growth that is both inclusive and fiscally sustainable,” Hontiveros said. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)