House panel realigns P1.3B to intel-gathering agencies
LAWMAKERS yesterday made good on their promise to strip the Office of the Vice President (OVP) of its proposed P500 confidential funds for next year by realigning it to the Philippine Coast Guard and other intelligence-gathering agencies at the forefront of protecting the country’s territorial interests in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) in the South China Sea.
A small committee led by Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol), chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, also gave zero confidential funds to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Education (DepEd), which is also headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, who is the concurrent education secretary.
The small committee was tasked to receive and resolve individual amendments to the proposed P5.68 trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2024 after the House of Representatives approved the measure on third and final reading before it went on recess late last month.
The OVP did not immediately comment on the House’s decision, but the Vice President has told lawmakers during the budget hearings that she can live even without her office’s confidential funds.
The small panel recommended the transfer of a total of P1.23 billion from the OVP and other agencies to the following: P300 million to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), P100 million to the National Security Council (NSC), P200 million to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) for intelligence activities and ammunition, and P381.8 million to the Department of Transportation (DOTR) for airport development and the expansion of Pag-asa Island airport in the WPS, which is just part of its P3 billion total allocation.
“We believe that the House of Representatives is on the right side of history, we’re responding to the volatile situation in the WPS and to calls for the immediate and decisive action to protect our national sovereignty,” said Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, a member of the small panel and who is a senior vice chair of the appropriations panel.
Quimbo said only the P381 million item was taken from the confidential funds of the OVP and the other agencies.
The small panel also decided to convert the confidential funds of the following agencies into Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE): P30 million for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), P25 million for DICT, P30 million for DFA, and P50 million for the Office of the Ombudsman.
Quimbo said the small panel’s total individual amendments to the GAB is worth P194 billion and its “main goal is to rationalize the reallocation of resources to fight inflation and invest in human capital and our country’s future.”
Quimbo said the P194 billion came from the proposed budget of different departments and agencies that have admitted that it would be difficult for them to implement certain programs and projects, like the DOTR.
“Mismong ahensya ang nagsasabi na ‘di kakayaninin for next year so pwede na kunin ang ganito karami (na pondo) dahil realistically ‘di kakayanin. Example, the DOTR (The agencies are the ones saying they can’t implement it next year so we can take a certain amount of funds because realistically, they can’t do it. Example, the DOTR,” she said.
‘AUDITABLE’
Quimbo said that while it lost its P150 million in confidential funds, the small panel decided to retain the amount by realigning it to the DepEd’s Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE), which, unlike confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs), can easily be audited by the Commission on Audit (COA).
“Kung pwede naman gawin auditable, auditable na lang (If we can make the fund auditable, let’s go with that),” Quimbo told reporters in a joint press conference with Co, majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe and minority leader Marcelino Libanan.
To enhance food production and combat inflation, especially the high cost of rice, she said the small panel made the following changes to the GAB: P20 billion was realigned to the DA for the rice subsidy program to help sell rice at subsidized prices, P40 billion to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to install solar-driven irrigation pumps and subsidize communal irrigation, P2 billion to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for massive planting of seedlings, P1.5 billion for vaccines against the African Swine Fever, and P1 billion to the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority to construct fisheries and post-harvest facilities in Palawan and the Kalayaan Group of Islands.
To invest in human capital and the country’s future, Quimbo said the small panel also added P43.9 billion to the DOH for medical assistance to indigent patients, legacy and specialty hospitals, cancer assistance, communicable disease program and health facility enhancement.
She said P1 billion was realigned to the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital for Medical assistance for indigent patients (MAIP), P35 billion to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations and Sustainable Livelihood Program, P17.5 billion to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) and the government internship program, P10.4 billion for the DOLE’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) training for work scholarship program, and P17.1 billion for CHED’s Tertiary Education Subsidy and Tulong-tulong program.
Because of what the House did, Quimbo expressed confidence that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will be “more circumspect in granting confidential and intelligence funds in the first place.”
It is the Executive, through the DBM, that crafts the annual National Expenditure Program (NEP) which Congress scrutinizes and amends before it becomes a law.
Quimbo also denied rumors that the House has its own confidential funds worth P1.6 billion, saying the item is actually for extraordinary expenses which is “fully auditable and is different from confidential and intelligence funds.” She said one use of the fund is assistance during calamities.
HR VIOLATIONS
Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT), a member of the militant Makabayan bloc, expressed dismay at the decision of the House small committee to realign confidential funds “to agencies notorious for their involvement in human rights violations.”
“A closer look at the realignment of the confidential fund then we can see that it is the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and the National Security Council (NSC) who are the biggest gainers instead of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) who are the primary ones facing Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea (WPS),” Castro said.
Castro said that instead of giving more funds to the NICA and the NSC, the small panel should have realigned it to the DA’s rice procurement and for hospitals and state universities and colleges (SUCs).
“Such a realignment is a new record high for NICA whose confidential funds are normally just P1 million a year, but in 2023 is now P127.413M, while the NSC’s confidential funds almost doubled from P120M to P220M. These record-breaking increases in the confidential funds of these two agencies does not bode well for human rights in the country where we can note the increasing harassment, abduction and killing of activists in recent months,” she said.
Another member of the Makabayan bloc, Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) commended the small committee’s move to remove and realign confidential funds and challenged President Marcos Jr. “to follow suit and give up the Office of the President’s confidential funds.”
The lawmaker said that instead of allocating these funds for undisclosed purposes, they should be realigned to address the pressing needs of society, particularly in basic social services such as education, healthcare, housing, and livelihood programs.
