CONFIDENTIAL funds are meant to protect the Filipino people from threats such as terrorism, illegal drugs and organized crime, not to serve as a security fund for a single government official, Deputy Speaker Janette Garin said Wednesday.
The Iloilo lawmaker made the point after Office of the Vice President (OVP) Assistant Secretary and Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio testified in Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s impeachment trial about the use of confidential funds for protective intelligence operations involving her security.
“Kapag confidential funds, ginagamit mo ’yan para protektahan ang sambayanang Pilipino, protect them from terrorism, protect them from drugs, protect them from kidnapping, protect them from syndicates, protect them from economic sabotage,” Garin said at a press briefing.
“Hindi mo siya ginagamit para proteksyunan ang isang opisyal,” she pointed out.
Garin said Duterte’s personal security is separately handled by her security detail, which has its own government funding.
“Hindi pwede na ang pondo para sa proteksyon ng sambayanang Pilipino ay gagamitin lamang sa proteksyon ng isang tao,” she stressed.
During the trial, Ortonio testified that the OVP submitted protective intelligence operations reports as part of its response to Commission on Audit findings, although he acknowledged that he had not read the reports and did not inquire about the specific security threats involved.
Ortonio also testified that, based on information supplied to him by then-OVP security chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, cash from the confidential funds was handed directly to informants or agents who supposedly used it to buy medicines, food and even chairs. He acknowledged that no official receipts were submitted for those purchases.
Garin said the more important question is whether those expenditures produced legitimate confidential or intelligence results.
She said an informant could legitimately remain unidentified, but the government should still be able to establish what the public obtained in return for millions of pesos spent.
“Kung merong insurgency, merong rebellion at ginamitan mo ng milyon-milyong confidential fund, dapat maipakita natin: eto ang nabawas sa rebellion. Eto ang nabawasan na kriminalidad. Eto ang nasugpo ng mga drug pusher. Eto ’yung na-entrap at napahinto na mga shabu laboratory,” Garin said.
“’Yan lang. Ganoon lang kasimple,” she added.
Under Joint Circular No. 2015-01, confidential funds may be used for specified purposes such as purchasing information necessary for national security and peace and order, maintaining safe houses and paying qualified rewards to non-employee informers.
The circular requires strong internal controls and strict accounting and auditing because the expenditures involve public funds.
Garin said confidentiality should therefore protect legitimate operations and informants, not prevent the government from demonstrating that the money accomplished its intended purpose.
She likened it to a government program given a budget to feed students, saying the public may not necessarily need to know who bought the food or every operational detail, but there must still be identifiable beneficiaries and results.
“Pwedeng hindi natin alam sino ang namalengke. Pwedeng hindi natin alam saan binili ’yung kanin, gulay, manok at baboy. Pero alam mo sino mga estudyante ang pinakain,” Garin said.
“It’s as simple as that. Hindi na ito dapat pinapahaba,” she added.
Garin said that after weeks of testimony and examination of confidential fund records, the central question has become increasingly straightforward.
“Marami nang tanong ang nasagot. Isa na lang ang hindi nasasagot: totoo ba ang pinaggamitan o hindi?” she said
metrosundaily
