Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel and Senator Risa Hontiveros expressed their disappointment over the return of confidential, intelligence funds in the final 2023 budget.
“We have an oversight committee, yet in the final version of the [General Appropriations Bill (GAB)], agencies receiving CIF need not submit periodic reports. It seems we crippled our own committee,” Pimentel said.
Pimentel was among those who opposed the allocation of P150 million confidential funds to the Department of Education and P500 million to the Office of Vice President.
Hontiveros on the other hand said that Congress missed an opportunity to show its independence in ratifying the proposed budget.
“It is unfortunate that for the first budget of the Marcos administration, Congress has shown its malleability to the administration’s whims and has squandered an opportunity offered by the Senate for more transparency and accountability and less opportunities for corruption,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros also slammed the deletion of provision on the safeguards when it comes to CIF.
“It seems that the protection that we gave for the protection of public funds has been rendered blunt and worn out by granting in full all the requests for CIF under the Marcos-Duterte administration,” she said.
