Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (Screenshot from Facebook)

A government agency that's deemed not entitled to confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) must be completely stripped of such funds. 

Independent minority solon Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman had this to say Wednesday, Oct. 4 amid reports that some agencies would retain a portion of their CIFs. 

“All agencies not entitled to [CIFs] because of the nature of their functions and the extent of their mandate must be deprived of secret funds in their entirety and a mere reduction must not suffice," Lagman said. 

“There is no rhyme [or] reason for an agency not entitled to CIFs to retain any appropriation at all as an ‘accommodation’ or ‘courtesy’ allocation," the Bicolano stressed. 

Lagman further underscored that “non-entitlement to CIFs is absolute and deprivation of appropriation must be total". 

CIFs were a major talking point during the just-concluded budget process in the House of Representatives. 

The P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget for 2024 was approved on third and final reading by the House of Representatives last Sept. 27. 

Just before the GAB's passage, the House leadership came out with a statement saying that agencies and departments that have nothing to do with intelligence or security would have their CIFs realigned somewhere else.