Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Monday sponsored Senate Resolution No. 302 which seeks to create an oversight committee for confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) which amounts to P9.28 billion in the proposed 2023 national budget.
Zubiri underscored the need for the said committee to keep a close eye on government agencies’ utilization of their allocated CIF, which is not subject to the usual or regular auditing rules and procedures of the Commission on Audit.
“It falls on us, on this proudly democratic and independent Senate, to reactivate the Select Oversight Committee, where we can subject these confidential and intelligence funds to checks and balances,” he said.
“We are cognizant of our own primordial role, power, and responsibility as holders of the power of the purse. We, the elected representatives of the people, must ensure that these funds are judiciously and rightly used,” Zubiri added.
The senator, however, defended the presence of confidential and intelligence funds in the budget.
“These funds are essential. We need to empower our agencies to conduct necessary programs, operations, and activities for the safety and security of our people. This is especially true now, as we are facing strange new challenges in these strange new times,” he said.
“In these times, we need to be more trusting of our government agencies…We have to have faith that they would use every inch of diligence and discretion in undertaking surveillance and intelligence gathering in the discharge of their sacred mandates in and in keeping with their oaths.”
The 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) marks P9,287,675,000 for confidential and intelligence funds—P4,330,048,000 marked as confidential funds and P4,957,627,000 as intelligence funds.