SENATE deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday said Malacañang and its allies are creating more confusion with its explanation on the P125 million confidential funds given to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022.
Hontiveros was referring to the latest statement of Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo as to the source of the P125 million confidential funds that the OVP received from the Office of the President last year.
Hontiveros and militant lawmakers from the House of Representatives have been saying that the transfer was illegal because there is no line item in the OVP’s 2022 budget for confidential funds.
“Well, pansin natin, the more they clarify medyo lalong lumalabo kasi paiba-iba ‘yung mga paliwanag nila. Ano ba talaga? Confidential fund ba ‘yan mula sa OP o sa OVP? Ay hindi pala, kasi tumutol ang mga tao. Paano naging confidential fund transfer when there was no line item budget for OVP to which any savings from OP could have been properly transferred to augment that OVP line budget? (Well, I have noticed that the more they explain, the more the issue gets unclear because they offer different explanations. Are they confidential funds for the OP [Office of the President] or OVP [Office of the Vice President]? Now they will say that it is not because the citizens questioned it. How can that be a transfer of confidential funds when there was no line item budget for the OVP?),” Hontiveros told ANC’s Headstart.
Hontiveros made the remark after Quimbo, a senior member of the House appropriations committee, said that the questioned P125 million confidential funds for the OVP in 2022 were “perfectly legal” under the 2022 budget law since its released was alleged allowed under a provision in the General Appropriations Act of 2022.
She said that during the time of former Vice President Leni Robredo, there was no allocation for confidential funds under the OVP’s budget for 2022 but there was a request from the present OVP for the Department of Budget and Management for “additional funds for a number of activities under a program.”
Quimbo said: “There was also a request for confidential expenses and because it happened during the year (2022), the DBM had to look into the nature of the request and based on their assessment, they found that they can source the funds from the contingent funds,” Quimbo said.
She said under the special provision for the contingent funds in the 2022 National Expenditure Program, the purpose for the expenses has to be “new or urgent.”
She said she got this information when they were briefed by the DBM last week.
Hontiveros said Quimbo is singing a different tune from that of Malacañang.
“So, nag-iba naman ang paliwanag nila — from ES, to DBM, to OP ngayon. ‘Ay source pala ay contingent funds.’ So alam niyo if something has been straightforward, defensible, and accountable, dapat naging simple lang ang paliwanag. The more na paiba-iba ang paliwanag nila nagmumkhang hindi maliwanag, kundi malabo (So, they now have different explanations — from the Executive Secretary, the DBM, to OP. ‘The source came from contingent funds.’ If they have been straightforward, defensible, and accountable, their explanation should have been simple. The more they have different explanations, the more it becomes vague),” Hontiveros said.
She said the administration has also inserted technical terms to its explanation apparently to confuse the people.
“So, ngayon that they’re changing their tunes every few days, every week. Hindi pala confidential funds, yan daw ngayon ay contingent funds. Bukas kaya ano nang itatawag nila diyan para subukang ipaliwanag? (Now they are changing tunes every few days, every week. That is now not confidential funds, but rather contingency funds. I wonder what they will call that when they make another explanation?)” she added.
