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Martires asks Senate, House to reduce Ombudsman's P51 million confidential fund to P1 million

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Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Ombudsman Samuel Martires, ABS-CBN News file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/news/09/27/20180806-nancy-binay-senate-gc-5544.jpg"/><figcaption>Ombudsman Samuel Martires, <em>ABS-CBN News file</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA — Ombudsman Samuel Martires has officially asked the Senate and the House of Representatives to reduce his office’s P51-million confidential and intelligence fund to just P1 million for the years 2024 and 2025.</p><p>Martires made the request through separate letters dated October 6, 2023, addressed to House Appropriations chair Zaldy Co and Senate Finance chair Sonny Angara, which was made public on Wednesday, October 11.</p><p>House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri were furnished copies of the letter.</p><p>“Consistent with my earlier pronouncement on the matter, I would like to officially request that notwithstanding its investigative functions, that the Office of the Ombudsman be appropriated the amount of One Million Pesos (P1,000,000.00) for its Confidential and Intelligence Fund (CIF) in FYs 2024 and 2025 or until the end of my term of office as Ombudsman,” Martires said.</p><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=2811996" 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><p>He earlier told Senate minority leader Koko Pimentel that if it will only taint the reputation and integrity of his office, he will not have confidential funds during his term of office.</p><p>&quot;I think we can survive without the confidential fund,” he said during the September 27 Senate Finance subcommittee hearing.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/27/23/martires-offers-to-scrap-ombudsmans-p51-m-confidential-fund">Challenged by Pimentel, Martires offers to scrap Ombudsman&#x27;s P51-M confidential fund</a></li></ul><p>The use of confidential funds for several agencies came under scrutiny recently after Vice President Sara Duterte spent P125 million in confidential funds over a span of only 11 days in 2022.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/09/25/23/ovp-spent-p125-m-confidential-funds-in-11-days-in-2022-quimbo">&#x27;Nagulat din po ako&#x27;: OVP spent P125-M confidential funds in 11 days in 2022, says Quimbo</a></li></ul><p>Duterte was asking for P500 million in CIF under the Office of the Vice President and P150 million under the Department of Education.</p><p>In comparison, the Office of the President asked for P4.56 billion CIF and the Department of Agriculture asked for P50 million.</p><p>On Tuesday, the House of Representatives scrapped the confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President, the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture, as well as those for the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.</p><p>The DFA had earlier said it did not request any confidential funds.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/26/23/bato-wants-dfa-to-have-confidential-funds">Bato wants DFA to have confidential funds</a></li></ul><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=2838788" 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>

Ombudsman Samuel Martires has officially asked Congress to reduce his office's P51-million confidential fund to just P1 million for 2024 and 2025.

Martires asks Senate, House to reduce Ombudsman's P51 million confidential fund to P1 million

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Martires asks Senate, House to reduce Ombudsman's P51 million confidential fund to P1 million

Mike Navallo,

ABS-CBN News

Published October 11, 2023 01:22 PM PHT

Read More:

Ombudsman

Samuel Martires

confidential funds

corruption

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