Senate removes OVP, DepEd secret funds

MANILA, Philippines — Senators have unanimously agreed to remove all confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Department of Education (DepEd) and all civilian agencies from the national budget for 2024, a senator has disclosed.

The move comes on the heels of the House of Representatives’ realignment of confidential funds to agencies involved in protecting the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and other security-related functions.

It was unclear if the Philippine Coast Guard, a civilian agency under the Department of Transportation, would lose its confidential and intelligence funds, as approved by the senators. The PCG, which patrols the WPS, is among the beneficiaries of the CIF realignment by the House.

There were unconfirmed reports that nine senators wanted to restore the P650 million in confidential funds requested for 2024 by Vice President Sara Duterte for the OVP and DepEd.

“We never voted on confidential and intelligence funds,” Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum yesterday.

“In fact, we agreed unanimously to remove all CIFs not only of the OVP and DepEd, but all civilian agencies with CIFs,” Estrada added.

Sen. Sonny Angara, who chairs the Senate finance committee, reassured Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros of sufficient time to tackle the proposed national budget.

The Senate started budget deliberations at 10 a.m. yesterday. As agreed by senators, they would deliberate from Monday to Friday for two weeks to ensure that the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), considered the most critical measure every year, will be passed on time.

Pimentel earlier appealed to the Senate leadership to ensure proper phasing of deliberations and eventual approval of next year’s budget target to give the minority bloc ample time to scrutinize the 2024 GAB.

“Actually, I will request the majority, since we are only two (in the minority)… We will plead with our 22 colleagues in the Senate that we can discuss the budget phase by phase to ensure proper scrutiny. We need time and we assure that our intervention is also quality,” he said.

During Congress’ joint session last