The P650 million in confidential funds requested by Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio for her two agencies might return during bicameral meetings on the 2024 national budget, even if she said she would no longer pursue them, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said Friday.
Pimentel raised the possibility that Duterte, the concurrent Education Secretary, might get back the P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) she requested for the Office of the Vice President and P150 million for the Department of Education (DepEd) during lawmakers’ discussions on the budget in the bicam.
He said there were instances in the past when slashed budgets “were returned in the bicam.”
“For example, the Senate agreed to the minority’s insistence to realign the DepEd’s confidential budget for this year, but it was returned in the bicam,” said Pimentel in a Zoom interview.
This was contrary to the declaration of Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri that Duterte’s CIF can longer be returned, as she personally declined to have it back in her offices’ budget.
Pimentel asked the public to continue watching congressional deliberations on the proposed 2024 national budget to make sure this doesn’t happen.
He also urged civilian agencies which asked for confidential funds to follow the example of the Vice President.
Meanwhile, Senator Ronald dela Rosa urged teachers to watch out for the possible boost in the recruitment of insurgents from among the basic education learners after the DepEd’s proposed CIF was removed by Congress.
Duterte on Thursday conceded from asking the lawmakers for the CIF for both the OVP and the Education Department, which dela Rosa commended, saying the move “spared the Senate from debates.”
“My appeal to (teachers) is that even without the confidential funds, we can should make sure that no student will be recruited by the CPP-NPA in remote areas then fight our government and die,” dela Rosa, the former national police chief, said in his manifestation during the Senate plenary debates on the DepEd’s proposed 2024 budget.