Romualdez: Realignment of VP Sara’s confidential funds ‘nothing personal’

The House of Representatives stripping Vice President Sara Duterte's multi-million in confidential funds is nothing personal.

Speaker Martin Romualdez cleared the air in a late press conference on Thursday, saying that the realignment of Duterte's P650 million in confidential funds to security and intelligence forces was the "right thing" and had nothing to do with their previous dispute.

"We are all for confidential funds. We are all for peace and security. We are in total agreement that the utilization of confidential and intelligence funds is to promote peace and security," Romualdez told reporters.

"That's why we are in Pag-asa Island today, looking for ways to make sure the peace and security of the country as a whole is protected," he said.

Taking note of Duterte's previous statement that she left her secret funds to the sound discretion of Congress, Romualdez said they felt that it best to realign to agencies and departments and to the areas such as Pag-asa Island that need priority.

The House chief's remark came at the heels of Duterte's statement that critics of confidential funds allocated for peace and order are "naturally assumed to have insidious motivations. "

The VP even branded the critics as "enemies of the nation" who are "against peace."

Duterte sought P2.395 billion and P758.6 billion for OVP and DepEd in the proposed 2024 budget, including P500 million and P150 million in confidential funds, respectively.

The House leadership, however, revoked Duterte's P650 million confidential funds following a consensus by the chamber's party leaders to realign it to agencies involved in security and intelligence, such as the Philippine Coast Guard, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, National Security Council, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources amid China's persistent assertiveness in the West Philippine Sea.

The augmentation of the funds of security forces was to safeguard Philippine territorial waters and guarantee Filipino fishermen's rights and access to their traditional fishing grounds, the House said.

"We would like to make sure that the confidential and intelligence funds are most properly utilized by agencies and departments that are best suited particularly in these aspects of deploying proper sources and personnel for promotion of peace and security," Romualdez said.

In the same vein, Quimbo said the realignment of Duterte's secret funds was not a personal attack and that they merely applied "the general principles as uniform as possible."

According to Quimbo, the Department of Budget and Management, which prepared the 2024 National Expenditure Program, had allocated the CIF to various agencies, which the small committee is currently correcting.

"We are looking at which of the civilian agencies need CIFs so that they can perform their mandates, and at the same time, we are cutting down or removing the agencies that we think do not really need CIFs to perform their mandates," she said.

"And at the same time, we will add those who have been cut off from the agencies that we believe are lacking in performing very important mandates such as protecting the West Philippines Sea," she added.

Quimbo, majority leader Mannix Dalipe, minority leader Nonoy Libanan, and House appropriations panel chairperson Elizaldy Co composed the small committee that would receive and resolve amendments to the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024.

The panel has until 10 October to finish its task.