Reso filed to form oversight panel on CIFs
SENATE President Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday moved to reactivate the Senate’s special committee that would monitor the executive’s use of its confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs), which has been the subject of discussions in the chamber’s plenary deliberations on the proposed P5.268 trillion national budget for 2023.
Zubiri sought the revival of the Senate Select Oversight Committee for Confidential and Intelligence Funds through Senate Resolution No. 302 amid the issues raised by the Senate minority bloc and various sectors on the P9.287 billion in CIFs allocated to various government agencies, including the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
“It has long been the practice to constitute a Select Oversight Committee for confidential and intelligence funds. Since the 10th Congress, the Senate has always formed the Select Oversight Committee, and we are going to continue that for the (present) 19th Congress,” Zubiri said.
Zubiri said part of the job description of senators is “to keep watch over the use of the national budget,” especially for such “sensitive funds” like the CIFs.
He cited Section 14, Rule X of the Rules of the Senate which provides that “whenever necessary” special Senate committees can be organized for such purpose.
There is a total of P9,287,675,000 in secret funds in the proposed national budget next year, of which P4.3 billion are in confidential funds, while P4.9 billion are intelligence funds.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III has vowed to push for the deletion of the confidential funds lodged in civilian agencies, which he said are not engaged in the gathering of intelligence information.
Since CIFs are not subject to regular auditing rules and procedures of the Commission on Audit, Zubiri said the Senate needs to reactivate the oversight committee “to continue exercising its oversight functions over the use, disbursement and expenditures of the confidential and intelligence funds granted to certain government agencies and to provide vigilant oversight over the conduct of aforesaid intelligence activities, sources, methods, and programs.
“Being that we cannot identify the particulars of their usage ahead of time, the Committee is our way of subjecting these funds to checks and balances… We need to be vigilant about how these funds are used,” he stressed.
The oversight committee will be composed of three members from the majority bloc and one from the minority group. It will be headed by the Senate President.
Records show that the oversight committee on CIFs was convened during the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Congresses.
TESDA
Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva late Tuesday night questioned the excessive number of deputy director generals appointed to the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which he said run contrary to the law that created the agency.
Villanueva, who headed the TESDA from 2010 to 2015 during the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III, said the agency is only allowed to have two director generals.
The senator raised the issue during his interpellation of the proposed P13.47 billion TESDA budget for next year.
Villanueva, noting that the agency currently has five director generals, said the law says that the President can only appoint two deputy director generals upon the recommendation of the TESDA Board.
He also learned that TESDA previously had four deputies but “just recently… another deputy director general” was appointed, bringing the number to five.
“My question is, do we need additional deputy director generals?” Villanueva said, noting that Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, who has supervision and control over the agency, was not consulted on the matter.
TESDA chief Danilo Cruz acknowledged that the TESDA Act of 1994 allows only two deputies “but during the last administration, this was increased to four deputy director generals.
“So, when we assumed the position a few months ago, we submitted the application for four deputy director generals,” Cruz said.
He added that the present four deputies can take care of the affairs of the TESDA.
“(But) having received the appointment of the fifth one, everybody can contribute to the job of TESDA. Right now, we’re just thinking of designating him as deputy director general for special concerns,” he added.
Zubiri said what TESDA did was a violation of the law since “you came up with the item without amending the law.”
Cruz replied: “This is happening to a lot of government institutions.”
This irked Zubiri, who said: “The reasoning that it is being done by others should not be the right and legal reason… Just because it is being violated by other agencies, it should also be violated by TESDA. What we should do is clamp down on those other agencies, as well.”
