Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 5) — Some lawmakers are questioning the proposed ₱10.14 billion confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) in the 2024 national budget, stressing that the money should instead be realigned to social services.
“The allocation of ₱10.14 billion to confidential and intelligence funds, while our fellow Filipinos in calamity-stricken areas suffer, raises serious questions about the government’s understanding of the real needs and challenges faced by our country,” Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel said in a statement.
He added that the government should allot the funds instead to help the victims of Super Typhoon Egay, Typhoon Falcon, and the southwest monsoon or habagat.
“The struggles our countrymen endure day in and day out must be addressed through meaningful budgetary allocations that directly benefit the lives of our people,” Pimentel said.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro also questioned the CIF allotment of agencies “with no business in intelligence gathering or law enforcement.”
She cited at least two agencies – the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
“Lubog na nga ang bansa sa utang at napakaraming mga social services na dapat pondohan pero mas inuuna pa ang pork,” Castro said.
[Translation: The country is already mired in debt and there are many social services that need funding, but they prioritize the pork barrel.]
Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman, meanwhile, said the availability of CIF “does not justify the enormity and widespread allocations of these secret funds.”
He also urged Congress to scrutinize next year’s spending plan and “excise any budgetary fat.”
“It is incumbent on Congress to rectify in the NEP (National Expenditure Program) wayward policies and rescue proposed funds which are waylaid for favored agencies and concerns,” Lagman said.
