黑料社

MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The Senate has adopted the proposal of Senator Risa Hontiveros to ban the use of the contingent fund (CF) for augmentation of the secret budgets of certain government agencies.

Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, confirmed this on Wednesday when reporters asked if the the proposal was among those approved by the upper chamber.

On Tuesday, 21 senators voted to approve the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024. Only one 鈥� Senate Minority Leader Aquilino 聽鈥淜oko鈥� Pimentel III 鈥� abstained from voting.

The prohibition is contained in the special provision of the CF as proposed by Hontiveros when the Senate began its floor discussion on the budget early this month.

鈥淲ith respect to the augmentation of the CIF (confidential and intelligence funds)聽 from the Contingent Fund as was done last year for the Office of the Vice President, we wish to propose an amendment to the current special provision of the Contingent Fund,鈥� she said then.

鈥淎gain as a matter of fiscal prudence, we鈥檇 like to include the augmentation of the CIF as a prohibition under the Contingent Fund,聽 along with the聽 prohibition聽 to tap the said fund for the purchase say of聽 motor vehicles,鈥澛� she added.

Her proposed amendment followed聽 her聽 strong objection聽 to the transfer of P221 million budget last year from the聽 Office of the President (OP) to聽 the office of聽 Vice President Sara Duterte.

Duterte herself confirmed that聽 her office requested P125 million confidential fund聽 from the聽 OP.

Hontiveros branded this transfer 鈥渦nauthorized鈥� and 鈥渋llegal.鈥�

The Senate, on the other hand, did not touch the P4.5 billion CIF聽 of the OP tucked in聽 its proposed P10.707 billion next year.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the same,鈥� Angara said in another message.

This no longer surprised Pimentel, who proposed to remove the intel fund of the OP and cut its confidential allocation.

鈥淥f course, no one dared to touch the CIF of the President,鈥澛� the聽 minority leader said聽 in another聽 message to reporters.