Senate President Win Gatchalian on Thursday flagged a staggering P10.7 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) in the proposed 2027 national budget, although the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said the amount could have been higher had some agencies’ requests not been “filtered out.”

As the Senate Committee on Finance began budget deliberations, Gatchalian raised concerns over the hefty CIF allocation, warning that such funds could be vulnerable to abuse, as highlighted by the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

“The confidential funds should only be given to enforcement agencies or agencies with legitimate surveillance activities. Just because they want to doesn’t mean they can ask for confidential funds,” Gatchalian said.

Under the proposed P7.2-trillion budget for 2027, P4.3 billion is earmarked for confidential funds and P6.4 billion for intelligence funds, for a combined P10.7 billion.

The amount is about 8.8% lower than the P11.8 billion in CIF allocations under this year’s General Appropriations Act.

DBM Secretary Kim Robert de Leon told Gatchalian that several agencies had requested confidential expenses during the preparation of the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which was later submitted to Congress for scrutiny and approval.

However, he said the DBM limited such allocations to agencies whose mandates involve intelligence and surveillance operations.

“The DBM has filtered out because we seriously have to consider their mandate, as you have stated, that will necessitate having confidential and or intelligence expenses,” De Leon said.

“In fact, we’ve even checked if their requirement can actually be catered by a regular line item then it should be lodged into a regular line item,” he added.

Gatchalian said that while the DBM had already vetted the proposed CIF allocations, these would still undergo rigorous scrutiny by the Senate finance panel.

He said the chamber would exercise strict oversight and ensure transparency to prevent a recurrence of budget-related controversies.

Confidential funds are lump-sum allocations granted to civilian government agencies for expenses related to surveillance activities that support their mandates or operations.

Intelligence funds, meanwhile, are intended for uniformed and military personnel and intelligence practitioners for operations directly affecting national security. Their release is subject to the President’s approval.

The 2027 NEP showed that the Office of the President has the largest confidential fund allocation at P2.25 billion, or 51.51% of the total.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency ranked second with P500 million, followed by the Department of Justice with P364.85 million and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency with P351 million.

The use of confidential funds has drawn controversy and allegations of misuse in recent years, particularly after civilian agencies with no apparent surveillance functions sought and received substantial allocations.

The most prominent and heavily scrutinized case involved Duterte’s office and its rapid spending of P125 million in confidential funds in December 2022. Of this amount, P73.3 million remains subject to a notice of disallowance from the Commission on Audit, which ordered the return of the funds.