00:00 In 2016, the government's agencies asked for confidential funds for 2024.
00:06 In talking about that, the Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte
00:11 issued some regulations that questioned the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President in 2022.
00:18 Here is the special report of Rafi Tima.
00:25 The answer of Vice President Sara Duterte and Opposition Senator Riza Ontiveros
00:30 was hot on the issue of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President in 2022.
00:35 It was illegal to transfer P221 million confidential funds from the Office of the President to the Vice President.
00:42 In Duterte's statement, he pointed out that he is being dramatic
00:46 and that he wants to show that the 2022 confidential funds were illegally obtained by the OVP.
00:52 But he did not issue any proof to support his ill-intentioned imagination.
00:57 Ontiveros' answer was,
00:59 "It's just a job. There's no drama. I don't need to wish that the Office of the President illegally accessed the confidential funds."
01:08 Two former Senate presidents said, Senator Grilon and Senator Pimentel,
01:15 that the transfer of funds from the OVP to the OVP is illegal and unconstitutional.
01:23 Duterte also condemned party leader and representative Franz Castro
01:26 for his remarks on the 2022 confidential funds of the OVP.
01:30 You took out words in the law and you interpreted it this way.
01:36 They said, "Don't read the three words there.
01:41 Just listen to our interpretation."
01:45 That's what Franz Castro is doing now and the entire Makabayan block.
01:53 They know that we are using money to find their connection to the NPA.
02:09 Rep. Castro said that they are stating the truth about the confidential funds of the OVP.
02:15 The public has the right to know how the OVP spent P125 million within 11 days.
02:23 But what are those confidential funds for?
02:26 According to Joint Circular No. 2015-01 of the Commission on Audit,
02:30 the confidential funds are funds of the civilian government agencies
02:33 for their surveillance activities that will support their mandates.
02:37 This is different from the intelligence funds,
02:39 which are funds for the dissemination of intelligence information
02:42 by uniformed military personnel and intelligence practitioners
02:46 that have a direct effect on national security.
02:49 This year, the budget for confidential and intelligence funds
02:52 of various government agencies is P10 billion.
02:56 For the next year, this is also the amount requested.
03:00 The biggest amount in the OVP is P2.25 billion,
03:04 which is the amount requested by the confidential funds,
03:07 aside from the P2.31 billion intelligence fund.
03:11 But based on the data distributed by GMI Integrated News Research,
03:15 the number of civilian agencies that are requesting confidential funds has increased.
03:19 From 21 agencies in 2016,
03:21 there are already 28 agencies that are requesting confidential funds in the 2024 budget.
03:26 In the past, confidential funds were only being submitted to the Office of the President
03:32 because they need confidential funds for special pet projects.
03:37 The Office of the President is like the assumption there,
03:40 supervision of all the agencies of the government.
03:43 So they have their own flagship programs.
03:47 Dr. Maria Fe Mendoza of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance said
03:52 that the time has changed regarding the need and expenditure of confidential funds.
03:57 That's why the number of people requesting confidential funds is increasing.
04:00 That's why they saw that national security is not only peace and order
04:04 or our problem with defense or terrorism,
04:08 but food security is also included.
04:12 COA is still auditing this, but unlike the regular budget,
04:15 COA cannot disclose where it was used.
04:18 When you ask, they will give you data that we cannot disclose because it's confidential.
04:24 According to experts, if the law is based,
04:27 it's hard to counter the request of confidential funds of government agencies
04:31 if they say that they need it to fulfill their mandate.
04:35 But it's better if, instead of a program that cannot be known,
04:39 the expenditure is given to the agency that is directly helping the people.
04:45 We should really allocate the intelligence funds to the intelligence agencies
04:49 so that they can use it more
04:52 rather than spreading it to the agencies that have limited funds.
04:58 This is the first news. Rafi Tima for GMA Integrated News.
05:04 [Music]
