MANILA, Philippines 鈥� House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro on Sunday called for the immediate passage of a bill aiming to ensure transparency in the use of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), citing the continuing failure by authorities to locate and capture wanted personalities, including televangelist Apollo Quiboloy and former Bureau of Correction chief Gerald Bantag.
The ACT Teachers party list representative stressed that CIF did not undergo genuine audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) and weren鈥檛 subject to public scrutiny.
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Castro urged her colleagues at the House of Representatives to seriously consider House Bill No. 7158, or the proposed Intelligence and Confidential Funds Transparency Act, which has been pending with the Committee on Appropriations since February last year.
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Blunders left and right
She lamented issues arising from the alleged misuse of CIF, necessitating oversight, transparency, and accountability for officials鈥� mishandling of the funds.
鈥淚ntelligence blunders are coming left and right. Up until now they have not captured Quiboloy, then there is the escape of dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo as well as the failure to capture former prisons chief Bantag,鈥� Castro pointed out, adding, 鈥淭hrough the years hundreds of billions have been poured to intelligence funds but it seems that it has just become a slush fund when it could have been used for education and social services.鈥�
She cited CIF concerns raised by the COA, which has 鈥渞epeatedly noted the main issue in confidential and intelligence funds鈥攖hey escape genuine audit and public scrutiny, while the ones handling them escape accountability to the taxpayers.鈥�
According to the lawmaker, HB 7158 seeks to rectify the supposedly 鈥渦nconstitutional鈥� allocation of CIF which was 鈥渇ree from audit, public scrutiny and official accountability.鈥�
She pointed out that its passage was crucial in ensuring government funds are used properly and safeguarding the public interest, saying, 鈥淚t is high time for the government to rectify this unconstitutional mode of allocating intelligence and confidential funds.鈥�