Confidential fund increase for 2025 draws questions from House Deputy Leader

A House leader on Tuesday quizzed the Ombudsman over its request for a confidential fund for 2025, which, she pointed out, was four times bigger than it had in the previous years.

The Ombudsman was granted a P31 million confidential fund under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA). Of the sum, P16.6 million was only obligated, leaving P14.4 million as continuing appropriations.

The continuing appropriations—of which P7 million was already used as of June—add to its P1 million secret fund under the 2024 GAA.

House Deputy Majority Leader France Castro questioned why the Ombudsman's confidential fund request, initially amounting to P115.665 million for 2025, abruptly increased when the agency managed to function with much lower allotments in the past two years.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires had earlier said that they originally requested P115.665 million for next year, but the Department of Budget and Management only recommended P51.468 million under the National Expenditure Program.

"The use of the confidential fund, based on the history of the Ombudsman, has not been exhausted, and there is still P8 million left as of now," Castro said during the floor debates on the Ombudsman's P5.8 billion budget for 2025.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., the budget sponsor, said the Ombudsman intends to allocate a portion of the P51.468 million to its maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) subject to Congress' approval.

"We have the power to realign it. The Ombudsman said that out of the P51 million, the P1 million will be put in the confidential fund, and the P50 million will be put in the MOOE," Abante countered.

"Not necessarily that we can call it a confidential fund. It's up to the DBM if it will be used as recommended by the Ombudsman," he added.

Castro, however, argued that this was not in accordance with the Joint Circular No. 2015-01 that prescribed guidelines on the use of confidential and intelligence funds.

"If that's the case, we should just propose increasing the MOOE. The entire P115 million could have been probably approved," she averred.

Abante, meanwhile, stressed that the Ombudsman will submit to Congress's wisdom on whether to grant the fund request.

Martires has remained consistent with his pronouncement last year that he would prefer Congress to scrap the secret fund request if it would taint the reputation and integrity of his office.

Last year, Congress slashed to P1 million the P51.468 confidential fund of the Ombudsman under the 2024 GAA pursuant to Martires' request.