Press Release - Tulfo: NBI needs more budget to train new agents

Senator Idol Raffy Tulfo stressed that appropriate budget should be given to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as the premier investigative agency of the country so that they can properly and efficiently exercise their mandate.

During the Senate budget hearing on Tuesday (Nov. 14), Tulfo noted that although the 2024 budget of the NBI already increased in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), he noticed the failure to fund the request of the agency for the training of new agents.

"It appears that only ?8M was granted out of the ?290M requested by the NBI for the expenses for the training of new NBI agents," he said.

Tulfo explained that he is supportive of the budget of the NBI because he has witnessed how helpful they are in pinning down criminals and providing sufficient evidence for prosecutors to actually bring the cases to court.

"The NBI is able to trace scamming hubs, human trafficking houses, and child pornography operations. These big time criminals are really skilled in covering their tracks, and we have to arm our NBI agents with tools to pin these people down," he said.

At the proper time, Tulfo said that he will make the appropriate manifestation to ensure that the full ?290M for the training of new agents will be granted to the NBI.

Additionally, Tulfo expressed support for the increase in the budget of the Bureau of Corrections (BoC). While the bill he filed providing for CCTVs in detention facilities have yet to be passed, Tulfo believes that it could already be implemented considering the problematic security in detention facilities.

"Our detention facilities are intended to rehabilitate our criminals, instead, it becomes a breeding ground for more crimes, where mild law offenders end up being hardened criminals," he said.

"There must be a reliable CCTV system in all common areas and all entry and exit points of our detention facilities. Isama na din po natin mga detention facility sa NBI,"he added.

Lasty, Tulfo called for review of the meal budget of our detention facilities, stressing that the ?70 per day budget for their food is inhumane, and can even in fact lead to corruption and persistence of black market for food inside jails.