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What senators say about realignment of confidential funds

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Sherrie Ann Torres, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - Members of the Senate will discuss among themselves what government agencies will be left without a confidential fund, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Senator Sonny Angara said Tuesday.“May opinion dito ang bawat senador. Yung iba gustong tanggalin, yung iba gustong bawasan. Yung iba gusto andiyan lang. So, we have to reach a consensus. Ganyan naman ang style namin dito sa Senado. We’ll discuss it, usually in caucus. And then we reach a consensus, para sa floor, medyo smooth-sailing na yung decision,” Angara said in a news briefing.Angara’s statement was in response to media queries on how the Senate would settle the confidential fund issue, following the House of Representatives Small Committee’s verdict to deny the CF request of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT).The list also included the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).But Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo during his department’s budget presentation before Senate Finance Committee hearing, clearly stated that the DFA is not requesting a CF.Discussions about the CF must be tackled “agency by agency,” Angara said.Angara said senators need to fully discuss the CF issue, along with the “standards” that must be observed for an agency to be granted such fund.“Usually, those involved in national security and intelligence field issues,” Angara said.Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva assured the public that they will see a well-examined 2024 national budget.“Now it’s our turn to look into all of these items in the budget. I&#x27;m sure we will consider the work of our counterpart but as tradition dictates we have our own set of priorities,&quot; he said.Villanueva added, “As mentioned earlier, we will scrutinize everything to ensure proud tayong lahat sa national budget na ating ipapasa bago magtapos ang taon.”As to the Senate’s Select Oversight Committee on Intelligence Funds, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Angara are now also in the thick of examining the spending record of agencies that received CF from 2022 to 2023.Angara agreed with Zubiri’s earlier statement that only agencies with defined CF spending must be considered for next year’s confidential fund allocation.“Tama yun. That’s the rule of budgeting. You show that you use the funds properly sa tamang panahon, sa tamang paraan at saka sa tamang layunin. At yun ang pamantayan ng Kongreso sa pag-allot ng budget,” Angara said.As for the HOR’s announcement that they already slashed the CF of some agencies, Senate Minority Leader Pimentel in reaction said that even the Office of the President must also suffer a CF reduction, as well as the elimination of its intelligence fund.“We also have to reduce the CF of the OP and also eliminate the intel funds of the OP as it is a civilian agency which is not and should not be engaged in intelligence-gathering,” Pimentel said in a statement.“If the OP is truly busy then its manpower/personnel shouldn’t have time anymore for surveillance work and intel gathering. Leave that to the specialists in the field of intelligence. Unless these people in the OP have too much time on their hands,” Pimentel added.Zubiri and other leaders of the chamber have yet to issue a statement regarding the scrapped CF of some civilian agencies led by the OVP and DepEd.<div>SENATE OFFICIAL DENIES CHAMBER HAS CONFI FUNDS</div>Senate Secretary Renato Bantug meanwhile issued a statement Tuesday night to deny social media posts that the chamber for this year has a P331-million.“These social media posts are deliberately misleading and maliciously presented by some personalities who seek to malign and tarnish the reputation of an institution currently taking a long, hard look at the nature of confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) and the government agencies that deserve to have them,” Bantug said in a statement.“The Senate, for 2023, has NO ALLOCATION for confidential funds. The records will show that under the Senate’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) this year, the object of expenditure “Confidential, Intelligence and Extraordinary Expenses” has three line items and these are Confidential Funds, Intelligence Funds and Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses,” he said.“For 2023, only “Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses” has a line item amounting to P331,942M. There are no line items for “Confidential Funds” nor “Intelligence Funds,” the Senate official added.But according to Bantug, the previous Senate leaderships indeed had confidential fund allocations, like P100 million in 2020, P100 million in 2021 and P50 million in 2022.“But all of these funds were never used and were reverted to the National Treasury in full,” Bantug said.Asked if he can also categorically say that the Senate for year 2024 will not also have a confidential fund, Bantug said in a text message, “Yes, that is correct.”“We don’t have CF this year and we won’t have it next year. That is certain,” Bantug said. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/10/23/house-panel-moves-some-confidential-funds-to-publicly-auditable-items">House panel moves some confidential funds to publicly auditable items</a></li></ul><div>RELATED VIDEO</div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2837903" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div> </div>

Members of the Senate will discuss among themselves what government agencies will be left without a confidential fund, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Senator Sonny Angara said Tuesday.

What senators say about realignment of confidential funds

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What senators say about realignment of confidential funds

Sherrie Ann Torres,

ABS-CBN News

Published October 10, 2023 11:24 PM PHT

Read More:

Senate

Senate Finance Committee

confidential funds

2024 budget

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