Senate urged: Uphold House CIF realignment

MANILA, Philippines — Academics are calling on the Senate to uphold the House of Representatives’ realignment of confidential funds to government agencies involved in national security.

As senators conducted a hearing on the budgets of state colleges and universities and the Commission on Higher Education yesterday, academics who trooped to the Senate also called for sufficient higher education funding that addresses the big budget cuts on SUCs.

“The total budget cut for 30 state colleges and universities is more than P6 billion. In UP (University of the Philippines) alone, more than P2 billion will be cut, along with more than P400 million in PGH (Philippine General Hospital), which will benefit poor patients. Education is in dire crisis right now and is in equally dire need. So it is appropriate that the confidential funds be transferred here,” All UP Academic Employees Union national president Perlita Rana said.

About 10 government agencies, including the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education, are expected to be affected by the House of Representatives’ plan to realign confidential funds to national security agencies amid China’s continued aggressive acts in Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) earlier called on the House to ensure that the confidential funds of agencies that have nothing to do with national security would be realigned to public services.

Rana also assailed the confidential funds that Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s offices held.

“The P650-million confidential funds of VP Sara Duterte is equivalent to the funds given to SUCs for the education of 13,000 college students in one year. These (confidential funds) would be more useful to the nation if we are to allocate it to the future of the youth instead of giving them to agencies notorious for harassment and red-tagging,” Rana said.

SUCs nationwide earlier sought P331.3 billion in funding for next year. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), however, allocated them P100.88 billion, which is significantly lower than the P107.03 billion allocated in the General Appropriations Act.

With the budget cuts, as many as 30 SUCs have lost significant funding despite an increase in SUC enrollment rates this school year.

Meanwhile, ACT chairman Vladimer Quetua reminded lawmakers that World Teachers’ Day would be marked globally on Oct. 5 and called on the legislative chambers to address the long-standing suffering of teachers from low wages and shortages in facilities and materials due to inadequate government funding.

“For once, we want to see education on top of the government’s agenda in the allocation of national budget for 2024… The House deliberations on the confidential and intelligence funds have exposed how prone to corruption these funds are due to lack of transparency and accountability,” Quetua said.

“This is outright immoral considering the abject economic suffering experienced by our people who are also paying for such dubious funds. In the midst of a severe crisis, the billions of confidential and intelligence funds that are being squandered must be returned to the people. It should be devoted to concrete service programs such as education so that the people can feel it and they can also watch over it,” he added.

Sara’s CIF

Is Davao being seized by China like the West Philippine Sea to justify the annual confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) of P460 million for Duterte?

This was the question raised by Sen. Risa Hontiveros following reports that the Davao City government set aside over P2.6 billion for confidential expenses over the past seven years, with an annual expenditure of P460 million since 2020.

The amount surpasses the confidential spending of even the most affluent cities in the country.

“Why did former mayor Sara Duterte in Davao reach P460 million per year, while the other big LGUs (local government units), Makati, Manila and Cebu, did not even reach P100 million? You can really ask, why is there anything in Davao?” Hontiveros told Senate reporters in an interview.

“Is (Davao) also being seized by China like the West Philippine Sea?” she added.

The use of CIF is “really ripe for study and then coming up with appropriate legislations,” according to the opposition senator.

Duterte has yet to issue a statement about the matter.

Hontiveros is also open to studying confidential fund issues at any level or branch of the government, including the local government.

“Of course, LGUs also have a mandate for peace and order in their jurisdictions, so it is possible that they have a reasonable amount of confidential fund for that. But the operative term is reasonable. So there should also be a threshold for such confi funds, if ever, in LGUs,” she said.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said that scrutinizing the confidential fund allotments of LGUs would not be easy because Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code, grants fiscal autonomy to towns, cities and provinces.

Zubiri added that the people’s attention is now focused on national government agencies, but LGUs’ CIF amounted to 90 percent of their yearly expenditure program. — Cecille Suerte Felipe