The entire Mindanao has been under military control since President Duterte declared martial law on May 23 due to the Maute terror group’s attack on Marawi City. Since then, our military troops have been in clashes with the terror group resulting in multiple casualties and displacement of numerous Marawi citizens.
It saddens me that these troubles have to happen. I can’t help but wonder why the Department of National Defense, together with the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are not able to stop such terror attacks before they happen. These government forces should have been able to do preventive measures because obviously, these assaults are a threat to our national security.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana admitted that the military failed to appreciate the intelligence reports with regard to the movement of the Maute group in Lanao del Sur. Unfortunately, they did not notice how the terror group reached Marawi City because they were focused on counter-attacking them in the mountains. Now which is worse, being totally clueless about the terror group’s movement or having intelligence reports in hand but doing nothing about them? Definitely, this has been a case of intelligence failure. Maybe it is the right time that we ask: How were the intelligence funds of the government being used?
Congress appropriated P137.2 billion for the Department of National Defense and P793.7 million for the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency. A total of P5.8 billion of confidential and intelligence funds were also appropriated; P2.5 billion of which were under the Office of the President, which were claimed to be for the anti-drug campaign. 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. With this, we trust that the agency heads use these funds properly. Clearly, that is not the case here.
A few months from now, the House will begin its 2018 National Budget deliberations. We in the Minority will be reviewing abovementioned agencies’ performance in 2017, to justify the amount of their proposed budget in 2018.
Another matter of concern is the actual knowledge and performance of our government troops. Besides failing to appreciate intelligence reports, they have also recently committed a serious error after accidentally killing their own troops in an airstrike last week as they were battling against the Maute terror group. Bombs that were supposedly aimed at the enemy unfortunately hit our own troops due to a miscommunication. I recently filed a House resolution calling for an investigation of the said incident.
I cannot emphasize the importance of responsible use of intelligence funds, particularly at this time when the security of our nation is vulnerable to terrorists, both local and foreign. At the Minority, we will ensure that the intelligence funds are efficiently used, that our Armed Forces apply preventive and efficient attack and counterattack measures, and that martial law is properly implemented.