OVP, DepEd, others get zero confidential funds

THE Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) are among the agencies that will get «zero» confidential funds under the bill on the 2024 national budget.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Department of Agriculture, and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will also get no confidential funds.

Under the bill, the bulk of the funding will be channeled to agencies tasked with ensuring national security, especially in the West Philippine Sea.

A total of P1.23 billion in confidential funds were realigned to these agencies: National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (P300 million), National Security Council (P100 million), Philippine Coast Guard (P200 million), and Department of Transportation (P381.8 million).

Instead of confidential funds, these agencies will get the following amounts for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses: P30 million for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, P25 million for DICT, P30 million for DFA, P50 million for the Office of the Ombudsman, and P150 million for DepEd's Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education.

Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said the small committee formed by the House was responding «to the call of the times and the volatile situation in the West Philippine Sea» in deciding to make the realignments.

More than the realignment of confidential funds, Co added that amendments introduced in the 2024 General Appropriations Bill totaling P194 billion were designed to fight inflation and invest in people and the country's future.

To enhance food production and combat inflation, the small committee made these changes to the proposed 2024 budget: P20 billion to DA for the rice subsidy program; P40 billion to the National Irrigation Administration to install solar-driven irrigation pumps and subsidize communal irrigation; P2 billion to the Philippine Coconut Authority for massive planting/replanting of seedlings; P1.5 billion for vaccines against the African swine fever; and P1 billion to the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority to build fishery and post-harvest facilities.

These were