My computation of Duterte’s secret funds from mid 2016 to mid- 2022 yielded a total of P19 billion
The answer to this question is: Nobody knows, except perhaps former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte himself.
Or maybe it could include members of his inner circle, including his daughter Sara, the mayor of Davao City during his term as Chief Executive.
And there’s the rub.
By their very nature, confidential and intelligence funds need not be declared to the state-run Commission on Audit (COA).
But these come from people’s taxes, or public funds, and therefore should be accounted for. After all, transparency and accountability are two hallmarks of good governance.
The diametrical opposite of good governance is bad governance.
Confidential and intelligence funds should be given only to those agencies with direct defense and security mandates—Armed Forces of the Philippines; Philippine National Police; National Bureau of Investigation , National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, among others.
Other civilian agencies not specifically mandated by law to conduct intelligence and surveillance activities should not be given confidential and intelligence funds at all.
The Office of the President is given confidential and intelligence funds by Congress as part of the highest elective official’s position as Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
But this cannot be gargantuan in size compared to that of the key uniformed services or those of other civilian agencies.
COA, however, has reported it was only during the Duterte presidency that the confidential and intelligence expenses of the OP skyrocketed to billions of pesos.
COA’s annual financial reports posted on its website accessed by enterprising journalists showed in 2016 or during the shared term of Duterte (who assumed the presidency on June 30, 2016) and his predecessor, the late former president Benigno Aquino III, the OP only had P715.23 million in “confidential, intelligence and extraordinary expenses.”
In 2017, during Duterte’s first full year in office, the OP’s CIE expenses increased by 252.33 percent or to P2.52 billion.
The OP’s CIE expenses slightly decreased to P2.51 billion and P2.41 billion in 2018 and 2019, respectively, before going up again to P4.57 billion in 2020.
In 2020, the COA started separating in its annual financial reports the government offices’ confidential and intelligence fund expenses from their “extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses (EME).”
Thus, COA’s AFR for 2020 showed that of P4.57-billion expenses incurred by the OP that year, P2.32 billion was for confidential expenses and P2.25 billion for intelligence expenses.
The OP’s CIF expenses in 2020 were the highest during the entire term of Duterte, representing 51.41 percent of the P8.89-billion total CIF expenses of the national government for that year.
The audit body’s breakdown showed the OP’s CIF expenses in 2020 were way higher than those incurred by the Department of National Defenseand the Department of the Interior and Local Government that year, amounting to P1.94 billion and P923.42 million, respectively.
In 2021, the last full year of Duterte in office, the OP incurred a total of P4.5 billion in CIF expenses, accounting for 49.55 percent of the P9.08-billion total CIF expenses of the NG.
The OP’s CIF spending included P2.25 billion in confidential expenses and another P2.25 billion in intelligence expenses.
The OP’s CIF spending stayed the same in 2022, the shared term of Duterte and his successor President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who formally assumed office on June 30, 2022.
The OP’s P4.5 billion in CIF expenses for 2022 represented 48.17 percent of the P9.34-billion total CIF expenses of the NG for that year.
My computation of Duterte’s secret funds from mid 2016 to mid- 2022 yielded a total of P19 billion.
Again, we ask: Where did all go?
Duterte’s spending of secret funds stands in marked contrast with that of his predecessor, which did not even reach the billion-peso mark.
In 2010, during the shared term of Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the OP only incurred P69 million in confidential expenses plus P4.1 million in extraordinary expenses and P4 million in miscellaneous expenses.
During his first full year in office in 2011, for instance, Aquino did not incur any confidential or intelligence expenses but had a paltry P5.2 million in extraordinary expenses and P5.5 million in miscellaneous expenses.
The largest amount of confidential expenses that Aquino’s office incurred was in 2012 at P638 million.
The OP’s confidential expenses decreased to P150 million in 2013.
In 2014 and 2015, the OP incurred a total of P433.52 million and P453.59 million in confidential, intelligence and extraordinary expenses, respectively.
But there’s a clue offered by former Sen. Antonio Trillanes as to where part of the secret funds of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ended up.
He said Duterte admitted on national television he had used secret funds in the extra-judicial killing of drug suspects in Davao City.
Trillanes said his group had sent to the International Criminal Court the video clip of Duterte’s remarks aired on a TV program on Sonshine Media Network International.
“This is truly an open-and-shut case,” the former lawmaker pointed out. We agree.
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