Marikina City 2nd Rep. Stella Quimbo (PPAB)

The "small committee" in the House of Representatives is endeavoring to "correct" the allocation of confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) in the P5.768-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget for 2024. 

Thus, bared Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo in a press conference Thursday night, Oct. 5, even as she said that the small committee was doing so in a "blind" manner. 

"Ang ginagawa namin ngayon sa small committee, is nira-rationalize namin ang CIF. [In] other words, sinusubukan namin to the best of our ability na itama ang pag grant ng CIFs," Quimbo, the Committee on Appropriations senior vice chairperson, told House reporters at the Manila Golf and Country Club in Makati City. 

(What we're doing now in the small committee is the rationalization of CIF. In other words, we're trying to the best of our ability to correct the grant of CIFs.) 

"Kasi as you know, nakukuha lang po namin through the NEP, so doon sa NEP. Ang DBM kasi ang nag-aallocate ng mga CIF sa mga ahensya," she noted. 

(Because as you know, we just get these through the National Expenditure Program. It's the Department of Budget and Management that allocates the CIF to the agencies.) 

Quimbo said they are applying "the general principles" in their task to fix CIF allocation. 

"Hindi po tayo namimili....So kumbaga blind po, it doesnt--hindi po namin tinitignan kung sino yung ahensya na yan, we apply the general principles as uniformly as possible." 

(We're not singling out agencies...So in other words this is blind, it doesn't--we are not particular with what agency it is, we apply the general principles as uniformly as possible.) 

CIFs in the 2024 NEP amount to P9.2 billion. The confidential funds are pegged at P4.3 billion, while the intelligence funds are at P4.9 billion. 

The NEP, which emanates from Malacañang through the DBM, is the precursor the GAB or proposed national budget. 

Quimbo is basically saying that the CIFs were already in place before the House of Representatives got its hands on the government spending plan. 

"So at this point in time ang ginagawa po namin is tinatama po namin ang pag-allocate ng mga CIF sa mga ahensya. So how do we do that? So tinitignan po namin kung alin-alin sa mga civilian agencies ang mga nangngailangan ng CIFs para ma-perform nila ang mga mandato nila," she explained. 

(So at this point in time what we're doing is correcting the allocation of CIFs among the agencies. So how do we do that? We look at which civilian agencies need CIFs so they may perform their mandate.) 

"And at the same time, tinatapyasan or tatanggalan ang mga ahensya na sa tingin namin ay hindi naman talaga nila kailangan ng CIFs sa pag-perform ng mga mandato nila...dadagdag naman namin yung mga naitapyas doon sa mga ahensya na sa tingin namin ay kulang naman para sa pag-perform ng mga very imporant mandates tulad ng pag protekta ng West Philippine Sea," she further said. 

(At the same time, agencies that we think don't really need CIFs to perform their mandates would be stripped of these funds...which we then add to the agencies that we think is lacking in performing very important mandates like protecting the West Philippine Sea.) 

Another member of the small committee--appropriations panel chairman, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co--had earlier identified the P650-million confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) as due for realignment under the 2024 GAB. 

The OVP and DepEd are both under Vice President Sara Duterte.