VICE President Sara Duterte said Monday that the Office of the Vice President can make do without confidential funds, but having these will make it easier for it to accomplish its tasks.
Duterte made the statement at the Senate where she defended the budget of the Office of the Vice President, which has proposed a P500 million allocation for confidential and intelligence funds.
This has come under fire from several groups, who said the OVP has no need for such a fund. They had also raised concern over the huge amount especially since the use of such funds are not subject to the usual auditing procedures.
Duterte said the OVP could only propose the allocation of an amount for confidential funds, and is not insisting on it.
“We can live without confidential funds, but of course our work will be much easier if we have the flexibility of confidential funds in monitoring the safe, secure, and successful implementation of the programs, projects, and activities of the Office of the Vice President,” she said.
It’s still up to Congress, which has the power of the purse, to decide if the OVP would get the amount it had sought, she said.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros extensively questioned Duterte on the OVP’s need for confidential funds.
Duterte said all of the projects of the OVP use confidential funds.
“This is intended for the safe, secure, and successful implementation of programs, projects, and activities and engagement of the OVP and all the satellite offices,” she said.
Confidential funds are lump sum amounts provided in the national budget for national government agencies. Confidential expenses are expenses related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to intended to support the mandate and operations of the agency.
Hontiveros also asked Duterte about whether the OVP’s activities in relation to its use of confidential funds are already being done by law enforcement agencies.
In response, Duterte said the OVP’s mandate is different from that of other government agencies. It shares information with the military and the police, she said.
“Whatever we gather from our confidential funds and surveillance, we share it mainly with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. They share as well intelligence information that they gather which are not included in our database,” she said.
