Senate denies having P331-M confidential, intel funds for 2023

The Senate leadership categorically denies circulating claims that the chamber has received confidential or intelligence funds for this year.

In a statement released on Tuesday night, Senate Secretary Rey Bantug Jr. stressed there's no truth about the chamber's having P331 million CIF for the year 2023.

"These social media posts are deliberately misleading and maliciously presented by some personalities who seek to malign and tarnish the reputation of an institution currently taking a long, hard look at the nature of confidential and intelligence funds (CIFS) and the government agencies that deserve to have them," Bantug said.

"The Senate, for 2023, has no allocation for confidential funds," he added.

Bantug said the chamber only has "Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses" amounting to P331.942 million, which was used for were used for meetings, seminars, conferences, public relations, education, and other chamber activities.

"The records will show that under the Senate's Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) this year, the object of expenditure "Confidential, Intelligence and Extraordinary Expenses" has three line items and these are Confidential Funds, Intelligence Funds, and Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses," he stressed.

Bantug underscored that the Senate has no line items for "Confidential Funds" or "Intelligence Funds."

He confirmed that the Senate had received confidential fund allocations in the past leadership—amounting to P100 million in 2020, P100 million in 2021, and P50 million in 2022, respectively.

But he noted that "all of these funds were never used and were reverted to the National Treasury in full."

"Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz F. Zubiri is firm in his belief that the Senate does not need confidential funds," Bantug further stressed.

The Senate secretary backed Zubiri's active push for providing confidential and intelligence funds to military, police, and other uniformed personnel that are tasked to "protect the country from both internal and external security threats."

"The Senate, through the recently constituted Select Oversight Committee on Confidential and Intelligence Funds, will continue to examine the CIFS of government agencies under a rigorous lens of scrutiny and re-align them accordingly to those who really need them," said Bantug.