BUDGET DEBATES BEGIN. Sen. Sonny Angara, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance (right), and Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III started the budget debates on Wednesday (Nov. 9, 2022). The Senate is expected to approve on third and final reading the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) on November 21. (Screen grab from Senate Youtube channel)
MANILA – Senator Sonny Angara defended on Wednesday the need for intelligence and confidential funds (ICFs) to be provided to three government agencies under the proposed 2023 national budget.
Angara, who is also the chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, said these funds are necessary for flexibility in initiating immediate contingencies as he answered queries of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel during the start of the plenary debates of the proposed General Appropriations Act for 2023 amounting to PHP5.268 trillion.
Pimentel questioned the proposed ICFs to be appropriated to the Office of the Vice President, the Department of Education, and the Office of the Solicitor General, and appealed to these agencies not to start the practice of seeking intelligence and confidential funds.
Under the proposal, the Office of the Vice President sought PHP500 million in intelligence and confidential funds while DepEd and SolGen are asking for PHP150 million and PHP19.2 million, respectively.
"I think what is good with the intelligence and confidential funds is the flexibility they provide. That the head of the agency has the flexibility to decide what contingency they intend to meet or what is the need that must be met" Angara told Pimentel.
Pimentel said OVP, DepEd and OSG did not have any confidential funds in the past and that they should not allow the practice of having it.
"Pwedeng pakiusap sa mga ‘to na huwag nang umpisahan yung practice (Can we ask these [agencies] not to start this practice)? Through many years, wala naman silang confidential funds, umpisahan nila yung bagong practice. Ang hirap na pong pigilan niyan kapag naumpisahan na (they have no confidential funds in the past, then they will start doing this practice. We can not stop this once we started this kind of practice),” Pimentel retorted.
He added that while ICFs allotted for security agencies can be justified, proposed confidential funds for OVP, DepEd and OSG should rather be reallotted to other expenditures like calamity funds. (PNA)
