The Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), both headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, do not need confidential and intelligence funds, which are “sources of corruption", said Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
Duterte, who is education chief in a concurrent capacity, had asked for a total of P650 million—P500 million for the OVP and P150 million for DepEd—in confidential funds next year, which both chambers of Congress approved recently.
But the veteran lawmaker, who is also president of the once-ruling Liberal Party (LP), opposed the existence of such funds for the OVP and DepEd.
“I have consistently and repeatedly opposed the appropriation of confidential and intelligence funds with respect to its propriety and magnitude, particularly in departments and agencies which do not need said funds like the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education,” he said in a statement.
“I have also stressed that the said funds are sources of corruption as their utilization is shrouded in mystery and their audit is behind closed doors, solely between the auditor and the audited,” he added.
Duterte defended the appropriation of the said funds, saying that DepEd’s confidential funds would be used for the security and surveillance of sexual grooming of students, recruitment of students for terrorism and violent extremism, and drug use among DepEd personnel.
She also argued that her predecessors also received confidential funds, although former vice president Leni Robredo, in earlier interviews, denied having access to such funds.
As these confidential funds passed the scrutiny of both Congress and Senate, Lagman lamented belonging to the “slim opposition,” because he “is invariably overwhelmed by the ascendant numerical superiority of the majority coalition, for which reason confidential and intelligence funds are institutionalized in the national budget".
The confidential funds of both the OVP and DepEd, as well as the Office of the President’s (OP) P4.5-billion confidential and intelligence funds, are included in the P5.3-trillion national spending program for 2023.
In the Senate, only Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Senator Risa Hontiveros attempted--but failed--to block the lump-sum allocations by asking for their deletion and realignment.
According to the Commission on Audit (COA), confidential expenses as outlays on surveillance activities of civilian government agencies, while intelligence expenses are disbursements related to intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed, military personnel and intelligence practitioners.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte likewise requested and received P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds, which he spent in its entirety during his last year in office.
In contrast, his predecessor, the late former president Benigno Aquino III, asked only for P500 million—P250 million as confidential funds and P250 million as intelligence funds.