The issue involving the allocation of confidential funds and its purported unwise use was hurled against former Dep-Ed Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte, even as other controversies hounding the Dutertes seem to have gained traction over time.
In fact, the Commission on Audit (COA), in a report during the plenary debates at the House of Representatives for the deliberation of the 2024 General Appropriations Bill, bared that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent a whopping amount of P125 million from its confidential funds in 2022 in just 11 days.
Such an amount consumed in just 11 days turned a lot of heads and begged an explanation of whether the expenditure was appropriate and necessary, even if the amount was categorized as confidential funds.
Now, before we cast judgment on the OVP for allegedly misusing its confidential funds, let us learn more about what the said funds are for, where and when they are to be used in the context of government spending.
In this matter, we refer to a 2015 joint circular between the Commission on Audit (COA), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG) and the Department of National Defense (DND), which laid down the guidelines on the use of confidential and intelligence funds.
According to that circular, confidential and intelligence funds “are lump sum allocations set aside in the national budget for expenses that involve surveillance and intelligence information gathering activities.” More specifically, confidential funds “are for confidential expenses related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support their mandate or operations.” The circular then points out that confidential funds can only be used for the following expenses: a. purchase of information necessary for the formulation and implementation of a program; b. activities and projects relevant to national security and peace and order; c. rental of transport vehicles related to confidential activities; d. rentals and incidental expenses related to the maintenance of safehouses; e. purchase or rental of supplies, materials and equipment for confidential operations that cannot be done through regular procedures without compromising the information gathering activity concerned, payment of rewards to informers; and f. [uncovering and preventing] illegal activities that pose a clear and present danger to agency personnel or property, or other facilities and resources under the agency protection, done in coordination with appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Clearly, then, even if the OVP is entitled to such confidential funds, the use of the amount is limited and must be closely connected with national security and peace and order concerns. But if such is the case, what specific function of the OVP would require it to be allocated with confidential funds?
Does the OVP exercise surveillance functions or even maintain safe houses for its supposed informants? Using confidential funds, what programs or projects has the OVP created or established that would be relevant to national security and peace and order concerns?
This, then, is actually the crux of the issue on whether the OVP or other civilian offices and agencies should be given confidential funds for their discretionary use. Because of this uncertainty, the House of Representatives already removed confidential fund allocations for the OVP and four other civilian agencies in October of 2023, and under the proposed budget for 2024 in the amount of more than 5 trillion pesos. The way they did it is simply to reallocate the said confidential funds to other budget items that they said would “address the rising cost of commodities, seek to develop and protect the West Philippine Sea, and are subject to auditing procedures.”
Whose funds are these, really? To what agency or office should these confidential funds and intelligence funds belong to?
Well, for starters, they originally belong to the taxpayers who sacrifice their money in exchange for benefits from the government. Having said that, it must be emphasized that the true nature of these confidential or intelligence funds is to secure the lives and property of the people, as well as protect the nation from all threats that would endanger the peace and order situation of the nation.
Simply put, if an office or agency of the government is involved in the conduct of threat assessment and evaluation with relevance to the local or national security of the country, then they should be entitled to not only confidential funds but also intelligence funds.
If not, then they can probably be entitled to small amounts of discretionary funds which their office or agency can use, subject to auditing procedures, of course.
