EDITORIAL — Confidential medicine

At the continuation of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte yesterday, the public learned that confidential funds in her office were spent for, among other things, the procurement of furniture and medicine.

No receipts were presented for the procurements, Roderick Wamil of the Commission on Audit told the Senate impeachment court. Wamil had audited the OVP funds when he was with the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Fund Audit Office.

Wamil testified that only “acknowledgment receipts” were presented by the OVP for the utilization of the confidential funds, including a “reward” of P70,000 paid to “Mary Grace Piattos” and P295,000 paid to “Mico P. Harina” for supplies. No specific confidential activity was provided for the expenditures.

During Wamil’s testimony, it was also reiterated that the OVP spent P125 million in confidential funds within just 11 days during the Christmas season from Dec. 21 to 31, 2022, with the COA flagging P73 million of the disbursements as irregular.

There could be a legitimate explanation for all this, once the defense cross-examines Wamil.

But in the meantime, the revival of the controversy over the confidential funds of the OVP and the Department of Education when Duterte was DepEd secretary also revives calls for reforms to prevent the abuse of secret funds.

Allocations and disbursements of confidential and intelligence funds or CIF are governed by the annual General Appropriations Act as well as a joint circular that went into effect in 2015 among the COA, the Departments of Budget and Management, Interior and Local Government and National Defense as well as the Governance Commission for state corporations.

Confidential funds, allocated to civilian agencies, have since grown exponentially in the annual national budget, with the wide room for discretion in their disbursement inviting abuse.

Since the previous 19th Congress conducted an inquiry into Duterte’s use of a total of P612.5 million in confidential funds, bills have been filed to tighten regulation of CIF and promote accountability.

Such measures, however, are not among the priority pieces of legislation sought by President Marcos from the current Congress.

Perhaps the ongoing closer scrutiny of the issue during the impeachment trial will give urgency to the need for reforms.