Palace studying proposal to forgo P500-million yearly intelligence funds

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is studying whether the Office of the President (OP) can forgo its yearly intelligence funds of P500 million, which was first introduced during the time of deposed President Joseph Estrada in 1998.

“We are reviewing the current status of those funds because this was only inherited by the current administration,” said Herminio Coloma, Secretary for Operations of the Presidential Communications Office.

He said the OP is checking whether the funds have been fully utilized or have been mismanaged. Some quarters, particularly Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, want the fund scrapped altogether because of its questionable nature.

“Maybe in the past the fund had a purpose that’s no longer valid at present because the administration now has a different orientation,” Coloma said in Filipino.

“The general principle here is that he will not allow misuse of the fund,” Coloma said referring to President Aquino.

In the 2009 national budget, there was a P538.4-million allocation for an office called the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.

“Let’s give the Office of the President and the Department of Budget and Management a chance to make the proper review of all of these intelligence funds,” Coloma added.

Enrile had suggested that Mr. Aquino give up his intelligence fund and distribute the money to other agencies if he wanted to have a cost-effective government.

He pointed out that the Office of the President had no allocation for an intelligence fund until Estrada formed the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) with an annual budget of P400 million more than a decade ago.

After Estrada’s ouster in 2001, his successor, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, abolished the PAOCTF but retained the intelligence fund amounting to hundreds of millions.

“The Office of the President is not entitled to intelligence funds because it is a user of intelligence and not a gathering unit for intelligence,” Enrile said in an interview over dzBB radio.

“Only those agencies involved in security should get intelligence funds,” he added.

Enrile proposed that Congress allocate intelligence funds only to the military, police, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Immigration, and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

He said the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Office of the Vice President, government-owned and -controlled corporations, and government financial institutions should not be entitled to such funds.

Oversight body

House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the opposition bloc is in favor of creating a congressional oversight committee that would keep track of the use of intelligence and confidential funds of the government.

He said there is a need for Congress to exercise its oversight authority over intelligence and confidential funds, saying these are virtually exempt from audit and other accounting procedures.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Armand Arreza earlier admitted having some P5 million in intelligence and confidential funds.

Open to probe

Faced with allegations of misuse of the funds, the military said it is open to an audit but in a manner that will not compromise its operations and national security.

“Certainly, we are open to scrutiny. If we are directed by higher authorities, we will oblige, but let me tell you that this intelligence fund is confidential in nature,” Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta, spokesman and chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Relations Service said.

Despite its controversial nature, Mabanta said the fund had been very helpful in the military’s campaign against communist guerrillas and secessionist groups.

He said any audit should be low-key for security reasons.

“Before we start our operations, we need to get a correct picture of the enemy... first and foremost, intelligence plays the first and major role in any warfare,” he said.

Mabanta also said the military would not block any effort to reduce the fund although he warned of its negative impact on operations.

“There will be lesser inputs that will be coming in and lesser quality of information that will be coming,” he said. – With Jess Diaz, Jaime Laude, Paolo Romero