Marcos confidential, intel funds higher than security agencies

The Office of the President (OP) requested over P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) in the proposed 2025 budget, higher than those agencies responsible for intelligence and surveillance.

This was established on Monday, during the first day of the marathon hearings into the proposed P6.352 trillion budget of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for fiscal year 2025.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, part of Marcos' economic team that crafted the National Expenditure Program (NEP), confirmed to the House Committee on Appropriations that the OP has the "highest" CIF request among all agencies.

Pangandaman said that from 2020 to 2022, the years covered by former president Rodrigo Duterte, the annual CIF of OP stood at P4.5 billion.

From 2023 to the present, or the years covered by the Marcos administration, the OP's CIF slightly increased to P4.56 billion.

According to the DBM chief, the Marcos administration's intel expenses amounted to P2.35 billion, or P60 million more than Duterte's P2.3 billion. 

"Is it the OP's mandate to act like an intelligence agency because that's what we see from the figures in the OP's budget?" asked Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel.

Pangandaman, however, countered that Marcos is the "commander in chief" and that the OP has "inputs from the security agencies."

Under the 2025 NEP, Pangandaman said the DBM allotted a P991.2 million and P250 million CIF for the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and the National Security Council (NSC), respectively.

Manuel questioned how the OP's CIF is far bigger than the entire budget of NICA (P2.42 billion) and NSC (P896.9 million), the agencies originally mandated for security and surveillance.

"We think that, supposedly, the [OP] that oversees all agencies even defeated the NICA [in CIF request] Madam chair," he said.

"As for the NSC, the confidential fund is merely 28 percent of its total budget. With that Madam chair, we do not agree with our framework now that the OP, instead of having good oversight of all the functions of the government, is focusing on this," added Manuel, referring to OP's CIF.