House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro asked the bicameral conference committee to realign the P9.3-billion confidential and intelligence funds in next year’s proposed P5.268-trillion national budget as cash aid to 4.65 million of the country’s poor.
Castro said that it would be better instead of spending billions of taxpayer money on secret projects the public can’t look into, lamenting that even government agencies, which should not be conducting intelligence-gathering or surveillance were given CIF.About P4.5 billion of the total P9.3 billion in CIF was allocated to the Office of the President.
But Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III expressed concern last month over the P9.3-billion CIF distributed to various civilian departments in the proposed 2023 national budget, citing the government’s repeated pronouncements on limited fiscal space. Former Sen. Franklin Drilon likewise asked Congress to closely scrutinize the allocation of CIF, warning that it might become standard practice in the future. He said that it was Congress’ job to put funds where they were needed and in terms of the CIF, these should be for government agencies directly involved in national security.The Senate, last week, approved the proposed 2023 national budget, slashing P172.
Other government agencies whose CIF were slashed in the Senate version of the general appropriations bill include the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice, the Department of Social Welfare Development, and the Office of the Ombudsman. “The [P172.67 million] CIF realigned by the Senate is a good start but this is far from enough,” Castro said, adding that the people needed more of the CIF faced with high inflation, low wages and unemployment.
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