The Senate on Wednesday, September 6 convened the select oversight hearing on the confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), programs and activities in a bid to address questions and criticisms regarding the huge amount of CIF allocations given to key government agencies under the proposed P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024.

The meeting, which was done in an executive session, discussed the guidelines that must be followed by the members of the committee with regard to the handling of documents submitted to the committee, Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri said.

“This will be used as a guide for us to know kung pwede nating tanggalin, bawasan, wag bigyan or dagdagan (if we can slash, reduce, or reject or add to their proposed CIF),” Zubiri said during a press conference in the Senate.

“Pwede natin makita at mapag-aralan ng mabuti ang paggamit nila in the previous years of their intelligence and confidential funds (We can see and thoroughly study how they utilized the CIF funds in the previous years),” the Senate leader added, saying the oversight panel will review the utilization of government agencies of CIF funds since 2022 to 2023.

Among those who questioned the CIF allocations in the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024 was Sen. Risa Hontiveros.

Hontiveros, deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, who questioned the proposed P500-million worth of CIF for the Office of the Vice President and the P150-million worth of CIF for the Department of Education (DepEd) for 2024.

Hontiveros said she supports the DepEd’s goal of making the country’s places of learning safe, but opposes the government’s efforts to conduct surveillance operations on learners, teaching and non-teaching personnel as admitted by Vice President Sara Duterte.

“As chair of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, there should be greater transparency on the scope and extent of these surveillance operations, especially if they are poised to infringe on the special protections and rights held by children,” Hontiveros said.

“I reiterate my call to reallocate the DepEd’s proposed confidential budget of P150 million - which is larger than the proposed P101-million confidential budget of the Department of National Defense (DND) - and for DepEd to focus on fulfilling its basic mandate of providing accessible, equitable and quality basic education,” the senator said.

“Hanggang ngayon hindi malinaw kung paano gagamitin ng DepEd ang napakalaki na confidential budget na ito na mas malaki pa sa confidential fund ng mismong DND (Until now, the DepEd has no clear programs that would define how they would use such a huge amount of confidential budget that is even higher than the confidential fund of the DND),” she pointed out.

“Let’s set our priorities straight, and ensure that not a single peso in public funds is wasted on vague and/or counterproductive measures,” she reiterated.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero had also asked government agencies asking for CIFs under the 2024 national budget to submit their utilization plan.

“Since it is the discretion of Congress, as I heard the Madam Secretary and Vice President say, to grant this or not, we will grant it for as long as we see the physical and financial plan broken down according to the JMC without violating the confidentiality that you need in order to perform your job,” Escudero explained during the Senate finance committee’s hearing on the budget of the OVP and the DepEd.

Escudero was referring to the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) 2015- 01 issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Commission on Audit (COA), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of National Defense (DND), and the Governance Commission for the GOCCs (GCG) on January 8, 2015 which prescribed “guidelines on the entitlement, release, use, reporting and audit of confidential and/or intelligence funds.”

“There are specific rules as to where this can be spent, how this can be spent, and to disabuse the mind of people that this is like a secret fund, it is not. Secret ‘yung submission ng expenditure but they are only specific items that you can spend it on,” he said.

Per the JCM, the funds are not to be used for payment of salaries and wages, overtime, additional compensation, allowance or other fringe benefits of officials and employees, representation/ entertainment expenses, consultancy fees and construction or acquisition of buildings or housing structures.

According to Zubiri, among those who attended the closed door meeting aside from him and Hontiveros, were Senate Minorit Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Senate finance panel chief Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, whom he said, they included having been a former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and has extensive knowledge on the utilization of CIFs.

“We discussed the rules that will be adopted by the Committee, and after discussion and revisions, all members agreed to adopt them. Under our Rules, all meetings of the Committee will be held in executive session,” the Senate leader said.

“The rules were crafted to specifically deal with the confidential nature of the funds, but we assure everyone that the majority and minority are working hand in hand to ensure that these funds have been put to proper use,” Zubiri emphasized.