The share of office of president, as well as the confidential and intelligence funds in the Philippines' proposed national budget of 2020, has been nearly doubled, reflecting his June 2018 declaration to make radical change to address security issues.
The confidential and intelligence funds in 2017 ranged around P2.5 billion to carry out the sensitive activities when President Rodrigo Duterte took charge but now the allocation has almost doubled to P4.5 billion in the proposed national budget of 2020.
It comes as a shock as the fund, which is difficult to audit, is more than half of the entire P8.28-billion budget of the office of president under the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget. The allocation of the confidential and intelligence funds is given to 19 government agencies, including the police and military.
The allocation of the OP is even higher than that of the police and military of the Philippines. A total of P2.25 billion of the P4.5 billion (64.34 percent) confidential and intel funds will be going to the office of the president alone. The rest goes to other agencies.
The proposed P2.25 billion is nearly double than last year's P1.25 billion allocation of the confidential and intelligence funds of the office of president. Apart from the OP, a lumpsum amount is allocated to "Other Executive Offices", that is shared among six offices. The agency budgets remained the same from 2019, except for the National Security Council, which did not receive any confidential fund for 2020.
The OP's intelligence fund is even bigger than that of the military. The Department of National Defence has been allotted P1.7 billion for 2020, some P49 million less than P1.749 billion given in 2019.
President's spokesman Salvador Panelo last week defended the P4.5 billion of funds allocated to the OP for intelligence-gathering noting that it was necessary to protect Filipinos against security threats.
The share of office of president's confidential and intelligence fund in previous administrations was as much as 400% less than the Duterte government's allocation. The government of former President Benigno Aquino III was just P500 million a year.
The confidential nature of the spending of the funds, which is not disclosed to the public as they are supposed to be spent for matters relating to national security and peace and order, raises eyebrows as major corruption scandals have evolved out of the confidential and intelligence funds in the past.
While critics are wary of an "unannounced martial law" as than corruption due to misuse of the funds, Malacañang, the presidential palace, has justified the allocation. "The Palace reiterates that the increase in the budget of the Office of the President, where the seat of power and supremacy in governance lies, is necessary in order to provide efficient, meaningful, and effective public service to the Filipino people," said a palace statement.
