On several interviews with the media, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana admitted that the war in Marawi and its dragging resolution were due to failure in appreciating intelligence reports. Despite the P100-billion increase in intelligence fund in 2017, according to him, the department needs some time to actually reap the benefits of their additional budget for intelligence. During the budget briefing of the Department of National Defense on Monday, lawmakers inquired on how the military’s intelligence fund is being utilized.
For 2018, the DND has a proposed budget of P195.476 billion, which is eight percent higher than its 2017 approved budget worth P181.36 billion. Out of the 2018 proposed budget, P144.679 billion is for the regular fund, while P50.798 billion is for the pensions of retired uniformed personnel.
In 2017, a total of P3.495 billion of intelligence fund and P2.083 billion of confidential fund were appropriated for the entire government. Confidential expenditures are not subject to the regular auditing rules of the Commission on Audit; thus, agency heads are required to submit a certification to justify their use of these funds.
The government’s total confidential and intelligence funds in 2018 would significantly increase to approximately P6.205 billion, P4.12 billion of which is for the intelligence fund and P2.085 billion is for the confidential fund. Would this amount be enough to end the war in Marawi and to prevent further attacks and similar events from happening? While I trust that the Defense Secretary and the AFP and PNP Chiefs are using their respective confidential and intelligence funds effectively, I wish that a more decent amount of their respective budgets would be used to compensate our uniformed men better.
The Marawi crisis led to the death of more than a hundred soldiers and police. If we are to replenish the forces that we lost, we need to craft a more attractive compensation and benefit package to encourage more individuals who are dedicated to defend our country, to join the armed forces and the police. As a justification for this move, the government should maximize the productive years of service of the uniformed men.
The officials and enlisted members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, by virtue of law, are forced to retire from service at the age of 56 or after a completion of a maximum of 30 years of active service, whichever comes later. However, to maximize the productive years of our uniformed personnel, I filed House Bill No. 5027, a bill that seeks to increase their retirement age to 60 or after completion of a maximum of 35 years of active service.
In the President’s recent State of the Nation Address, he committed to save money for the armed forces, primarily because we have already lost many soldiers and thousands are incapacitated to fight. I agree and support the President’s promise. Hence, come budget deliberations, the Minority will make sure that our uniformed men will receive the rightful compensation and benefits to compliment their patriotism, dedication and commitment to service.