Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 13) — Former President Rodrigo Duterte used ₱4.5 billion for confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) during his last year as chief executive, the Commision on Audit (COA) said on Tuesday.
According to COA’s annual financial report on national government agencies, the Office of the President under Duterte spent ₱2.25 billion on confidential expenses while ₱2.25 billion was spent on intelligence expenses.
COA said this was 49.55 percent of the total ₱9.082 billion used by the national government for CIF expenses last year.
Of the ₱9.082 billion, ₱3.995 billion was spent for confidential expenses and ₱5.086 billion for intelligence expenses.
Meanwhile, the Department of National Defense’s CIF spending amounted to ₱1.860 billion while the Department of the Interior and Local Government spent ₱908.45 million
Other government agencies have the following confidential expenses:
– ₱1.860 billion for the Department of National Defense
– ₱908.45 million for the Department of the Interior and Local Government
– ₱16.85 million for the Department of Transportation
– ₱258.21 million for the Department of Justice
– ₱60.625 million for the Department of Finance
– ₱31.74 million for the Department of Foreign Affairs
– ₱20.038 million for the Department of Social Welfare and Development
– ₱15 million for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
– ₱13.71 million for other departments and offices
The total amount of CIF spending by the national government declined by ₱361.3 million from ₱9.443 billion in 2020.
Total confidential expenses were ₱3.99 billion which is a ₱127 million increase from 2020’s total confidential expenses of ₱3.863 billion.
Expenses tagged as confidential funds are for private costs related to surveillance operations carried out by civilian government groups to support their missions.
Intelligence funds are expenses for information gathering activities of uniformed and military authorities and intelligence practitioners that directly impact national security.
