Amid the Budget Issue of the OVP, COA Released the Top 10 Spender of Confidential Funds
COA – The Commission on Audit revealed that the office of President Bongbong Marcos is the top spender of the confidential and intelligence funds.
The House panel recently concluded its investigation on the Confidential Funds spending of the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte. According to House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability chairman and Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua, they decided to end it as they don’t want the probe to be used amid the filing of impeachment complaints against the Vice President.
Amid the issues over the OVP Confidential Funds spending, the Commission on Audit or COA released the list of the Top 10 spenders of the confidential and intelligence funds in 2023. The office of Pres. Bongbong Marcos topped the list.
According to COA, the Office of the President spent a total of P4.56 billion confidential and intel funds in 2023. Based on a report on GMA News, specifically, the OP spent P2.25 billion confidential funds and P2.31 billion intel funds last year.
“The Office of the President remained to post the highest amount of confidential expenses, maintaining the same level as last year,” the Commission said.
Based on the report, the Office of the President is followed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the list with a P683,853,000 spending on the CIFs. The next in the list is the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) with P500 million. Here are the other top spenders of the confidential and intel funds:
- Office of the Vice-President Sara Duterte with P375 million
- National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) with P127,413 million
- National Security Council (NSC) with P90 million
- Department of National Defense (DND) with P78,921 million
- Department of Interior and Local Government with P75 million
- Department of Finance with P61 million
- Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity with P49.5 million
- Department of Foreign Affairs with P35 million
Based on the report, the confidential fund spending rose from P3.85 billion in 2022 to P4.42 billion in 2023 while the intel fund increased from P5.9 million in 2022 to P6 million in 2023. According to COA, it is the first time that the Philippine government has spent more than P10 billion in confidential funds in a year.
After the House panel ended the investigation on the OVP Confidential Fund, the House panel targets to pass a law requiring the disclosure of the Confidential Funds and penalty for those that will misuse it.