Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 9) — Some confidential and intelligence funds of the Agriculture Department may be transferred to the Justice Department to boost the campaign against agricultural smugglers and hoarders, a senator proposed on Monday.
Senator Raffy Tulfo at a hearing Monday suggested the intra-agency transfer at ₱50 million.
“I’m proposing na medyo pumitas tayo doon sa budget ng DA sa confidential funds. I-transfer na lang sa NBI (National Bureau of Investigation). Siguro i-distribute natin sa PNP (Philippine National Police), Immigration, I don’t know. Nasa discretion niyo na po ‘yun,” Tulfo told the Senate committee on finance.
[Translation: I’m proposing that we take a little from the DA’s budget for confidential funds. Transfer it to the NBI. Maybe we will distribute it to the PNP, Immigration I don’t know. That’s at your discretion.]
The senator said DA officials justified the CIF in line with the president’s directive to go after agricultural smugglers and hoarders, but he added that this job could be done by other agencies.
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“Kung to go after smugglers andiyan naman yung customs at PNP,” Tulfo said.
“Para sa ‘kin kasi it really doesn’t make sense na ‘yung DA magkakaroon ng confidential funds,” he added.
[Translation: If you want to go after smugglers, Customs and the PNP are there. For me, it really doesn’t make sense that the DA will have confidential funds]
Meanwhile, the Senate finance committee said it has raised the proposed NBI budget.
“Just for the record, we inserted over ₱500 million in the budget of the NBI, in addition to the help we gave the DOJ,” committee chairperson Sonny Angara said.
Bureau officials said the Budget Department cut the proposed fund for training new recruits, adding that at least ₱19 million is needed to train 199 agents.
Tulfo backed the call for a higher training budget.
“That is a very important part of their budget, para makapag-train ng mga bagong NBI. Napakababa ng recruitment nila,” the senator said.
“Mataas ang expectation sa NBI. Baka naman pag ‘onti lang sila at hindi natin bigyan ng suporta, baka dahan-dahan mawalan ng tiwala. So kailangan more recruits,” Tulfo added.
[Translation: That is a very important part of their budget, to train new NBI personnel. Their recruitment is very low. Expectations are high on the NBI. If there are only a few of them and we don’t give them support, they might slowly lose trust. So, more recruits are needed.]
For his part, Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said the NBI and its cybercrime units need more confidential funds.
“The DOJ’s confidential and intel funds are justifiable because it is being used for the witness protection program and other assets,” Ejercito said.
He said the total proposed confidential funds of DOJ amounting ₱471.296 million is not enough, noting that only ₱475,000 is allocated to the cybercrime division and ₱211.75 million to the Witness Protection Program.
He said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has ₱20 million, the NBI has ₱175.4 million, and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), ₱19.2 million.
“Considering that other agencies, especially those civilian in nature, are asking for confidential and intel funds, I guess, these are the agencies that we really have to put confidential and intel funds,” Ejercito said.
Angara said the committee is set to endorse the DOJ budget to the plenary.
