![[ANALYSIS] Legalizing plunder: Confidential and Intelligence Funds in the 2023 National Budget](https://i.headtopics.com/images/2023/4/12/rapplerdotcom/analysis-legalizing-plunder-confidential-and-intel-analysis-legalizing-plunder-confidential-and-intel-1646064652239896576.webp)
'Is this practice of allocating huge sums of public money as CIFs legal and constitutional? Are there laws to back it up? Apparently, the answers are no, and none.' Opinion ThoughtLeaders
In a genuine democracy, transparency and accountability in government use of public money, taken from the people in the form of taxes, is supposed to be the standard rule and practice.
Despite serious questions raised by opposition legislators over these fund allocations, Congress has approved this proposal, with hardly a whimper and with minimal changes, and the President has promptly signed it into law. What it failed to justify with solid arguments, this administration and its allies in Congress succeeded with backroom maneuvers and railroading, using its control over the majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Based on the circular, confidential funds are for expenses related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support their mandate or operations. Intelligence funds are for intelligence information-gathering activities of uniformed and military personnel and intelligence practitioners with direct impact on national security.
To allay concerns and criticisms, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri issued Senate Resolution 302 creating an oversight committee tasked to monitor CIF use. But Congress is hamstrung by the very same guidelines of the joint circular on CIFs, so Zubiri’s move is meaningless. A review of specific CIFs allocations in the national budget shows that various government agencies have received CIFs way in excess of the minimum amount for plunder. This applies to the Office of the President, P4.56 billion; Office of the Vice President, P500 million; and Department of Education , P150 million. The Department of National Defense CIF falls slightly below the minimum at P47 million.
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