Ombudsman quizzed on confidential fund hike

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

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

The continuing appropriations — of which P7 million was spent as of last June — was added to its P1-million secret fund under the 2024 GAA.

House Deputy Majority Leader France Castro questioned the abrupt increase in the Ombudsman’s confidential fund request, which initially amounted to P115.665 million for 2025, when it managed to function with much lower allotments in the past two years.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires had earlier said they originally requested P115.665 million for next year, but the Department of Budget and Management recommended only 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,” said Castro during the floor debates on the Ombudsman’s P5.8-billion budget for 2025.

The budget sponsor, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., 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 of the P51 million, the P1 million will be put into the confidential fund, and the P50 million will be put into the MOOE,” Abante said.

“Not necessarily can we 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 did not follow 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 said.