Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 9) — Agencies led by Sara Duterte — the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education — on Thursday officially withdrew their collective request for ₱650 million in confidential funds under the 2024 budget.
Duterte and the OVP acknowledged that its pursuit of the spending item “is divisive.”
“The Office of the Vice President can only propose a budget to support the safe implementation of our programs, activities, and projects to alleviate poverty and promote the general welfare of every Filipino family,” Vice President Sara Duterte said in a statement on Thursday. It was earlier read in the Senate plenary by Sen. Sonny Angara, the budget sponsor.
\”Nonetheless, we will no longer pursue the Confidential Funds. Why? Because this issue is divisive, and as the Vice President, I swore an oath to keep the country peaceful and strong,\” Duterte said.
The statement was issued after Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel asked if Duterte is appealing the restoration of ₱500-million confidential funds for the OVP’s budget next year.
The amount was stripped from the agency and was realigned to agencies focused on national security, according to the House of Representatives’ version of the 2024 General Appropriations Bill.
Angara, the Senate Committee on Finance chairperson, on Wednesday said the chamber’s panel report for the proposed budget adopted the House’s recommendations. These included reducing the total amount of confidential and intelligence funds in the 2024 budget to ₱9.82 billion from the executive’s proposal of ₱10.14 billion.
Pimentel and his deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros were laser-focused on questioning the confidential fund request of the OVP as the controversial spending of Duterte of ₱125 million in secret funds in 2022 continued to hound her office.
“I commend her for now categorically stating to this house that it’s not a deferral to our wisdom. She does not want it,” Pimentel said.
During the Senate plenary debate, Angara said the OVP’s confidential funds were used to “ensure the safe entry for implementation of programs and, of course, of the vice president and her staff to various points of the archipelago.”
Duterte earlier told the Senate panel during the budget hearings that they were “not insisting” on getting the allocation and that they “can live without the confidential funds.”
But she was critical of those opposing her use of the funds, saying in an October speech: “Kung sino man kumokontra sa confidential funds ay kumokontra sa kapayapaan. Kung sino ang kumokontra sa kapayaan ay kalaban ng bayan.”
[Translation: Whoever opposes confidential funds opposes peace. Whoever opposes peace is an enemy of the state.]
The Senate plenary ended its debates on the OVP’s proposed ₱1.874 billion budget for next year after only 30 minutes.
After OVP, DepEd also gives up secret fund request
In the same plenary session on Thursday, Sen. Pia Cayetano – the DepEd’s budget sponsor – revealed the Duterte-led education department had dropped its request for ₱150 million in confidential funds.
Cayetano read the DepEd’s statement on the matter: “We are all parents who want to protect our children. Ang seguridad ng mga bata ay seguridad ng kinabukasan ng ating bayan [The security of the youth is the security of our country’s future]. Nonetheless, DepEd will no longer pursue confidential funds.”
“We humbly request that the funds be realigned to the National Learning Recovery Program because we do not expect good scores for the 2022 PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment] results coming out this December,” the statement continued.
