The Senate has raised the need to test the legality of the Office of the President's Confidential and Intelligence funds, or CIF, as the plenary approved the 2024 budget proposal of P10.645 billion for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s office.
During the resumption of the Senate plenary debates on the proposed 2024 national budget, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel promptly inquired about the Office of the President's request for a CIF of more than P4 billion.
Civilian government agencies use confidential funds for surveillance to support their mandate. Uniformed, military, and intelligence practitioners use intelligence funds to source national security information.
As a civilian agency, Pimentel saw no problem with the OP receiving confidential funding. He opposed allocating intelligence funds to the OP because it is not made up of uniformed and military people, and the intelligence-gathering offices are already under its direct command.
"I don't think the Office of the President is composed of intelligence practitioners," Pimentel said.
"The President himself and his office are consumers of intelligence already gathered and organized by the intelligence practitioners, agencies under the Office of the President in the executive branch," he said.
As per the 2024 National Expenditure Program, the Office of the President is seeking approximately P2.3 billion in intelligence funds.
Senator Sonny Angara, who presented the 2024 budget proposal for the Office of the President, said the OP must provide documentation to the Commission on Audit or CoA concerning the utilization of intelligence funds.
"There are safeguards in the joint circular that you mentioned. It is subject to audit, documents are available to the CoA, and the Office of the President is not exempt from those requirements," Angara said.
"So, if we are talking about checks and balances, that is perhaps one. At the same time, what's good about the Office of the President is that they have not sought to increase any of these amounts at least for the last four years," he added.
Before the budget debates ended, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the OP's budget had one of the most complete and comprehensive CIF reports.
In the OP's 2024 budget of P10.707 billion, P2.250 billion is classified as confidential and P2.310 billion as intelligence.
The P800 million budget request of its attached agency, the Presidential Management Staff, was also deemed submitted for the chamber's consideration. The OP budget was submitted for plenary approval.