Senate panel adopts P9.82B intel, confi funds OK’d by House

THE Senate Committee on Finance has adopted the P9.82 billion confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) recommended by the House of Representatives when it approved the proposed P5.768 trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2024.

The amount is estimated to be P300 million lower than the Malacañang request of P10.139 billion included in the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, committee chairman, made the disclosure during yesterday’s plenary discussion on the general principles of the proposed national budget next year.

It was minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III who asked Angara how much CIFs were included in the proposed national budget for 2024 amid the controversy generated by the decision of the House to realign the requested confidential funds of civilian agencies amounting to P1.2 billion to security departments and to offices involved in the protection of the country’s sovereignty, particularly the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Pimentel has been vocal in his opposition to the grant of confidential funds to civilian agencies not involved in national security matters and criminal law enforcement.

In response to Pimentel’s questioning, Angara said the Senate finance committee adopted the House’s recommended CIFs which was pegged at P9.82 billion.

“Total of P9.82 billion in the committee report, you honor… The House reduced it, your honor, and we adopted it (amount) in the (Senate) committee report,” Angara said.

When Pimentel inquired how the executive came up with the requested CIF amounts and how it decided what agency should be given the secret funds, Angara said the decision to allot CIFs to agencies was based on “who requested for it and what was the justification for it and did it contribute to the agencies’ mandate.”

Pimentel said the reduction of around P300 million from the total CIFs under the NEP was small especially since “one agency” requested a confidential fund in the amount of P500 million.

The minority leader, without naming the agency, was obviously referring to the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte (OVP), whose P500 million request for confidential funds in next year’s budget has been