Castro questions legality of OP transfer of P125M to OVP in 2022; Tulfo defends

The Office of the President's (OP) transfer of P125 million from its contingent fund to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022 is a violation of the Constitution, Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said Tuesday.

The transfer was for the OVP's confidential expenses under its Good Governance Projects and Social Services budget item.

"This [transfer] is an augmentation of an existing budget item of the OVP. This is a prohibited transfer of fund from one budget item to another," Castro said during the budget deliberations on the OP's proposed P10.6-billion budget for 2024 at the House of Representatives.

"Under our Constitution, savings lang ang maaaring gamitin [pang -augment] ang exising na [budget] item, hindi contingent fund," she added.

The ACT Teachers party-list representative cited Article 6, Section 25.5 of the Constitution which states that "no law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations; however, the President, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the heads of Constitutional Commissions may, by law, be authorized to augment any item in the general appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations."

"Contingent fund can never be an augmentation fund, regardless of what the special provision on contingent fund in the GAA (General Appropriations Act). Based on the Constitution, this is an unauthorized transfer of appropriation. This is unconstitutional," Castro said.

In response, House Deputy Majority Leader and OP budget sponsor Erwin Tulfo said such transfer was not an augmentation of the OVP’s Good Governance Projects and Social Services budget item in 2022, and therefore is not illegal.

"This is not augmentation. It is an appropriation from the contingent fund [in 2022]," said Tulfo, who represents ACT-CIS party-list.

Castro, then, asked: "If this is not augmentation, what should we call it?"

Tulfo, in response, said: "This is not augmentation but a part of the contingent fund na binigay sa social services ng OVP (that was given to the social services of the OVP)."

House Committee on Appropriations senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo, the budget sponsor of the OVP, earlier said that the P125-million fund transfer from OP to OVP in 2022 is legal since one of the object of expenses of the OVP’s Good Governance Projects and Social Services budget item is confidential fund.

The 2022 national budget, however, neither stated nor provided a budget item for OVP's confidential fund.

Quimbo, however, had countered that confidential expenses are not a line item in the national budget

Under a 2015 joint circular issued by the Commission on Audit and four other government agencies, confidential funds can be granted to national government agencies which are expressly provided budget allocation for confidential fund under the national budget law or other law/s.

Albat Rep. Edcel Lagman said the release of the P125 million from the contingent fund of the President was flawed because it was a clear augmentation which was not sourced from savings.

Lagman provided journalists with a copy of Vice President Sara Duterte’s August letter to the Department of Budget and Management requesting a P403 million additional, if not augmentation of its 2022 budget.

The document was requested by Lagman from the Office of the President.

Out of the P403 million, P250 million was asked for confidential funds.

“Transfer for augmentation must be from savings of the office concerned. It was admitted that in the President’s contingent fund, the savings in 2022 was only P50 million but the release to the Office of the Vice President was P125 million. In other words, it was not from savings,” Lagman said.

“Moreover, there was nothing to be augmented because the Office of the Vice President had a zero appropriation for confidential funds in 2022. Zero appropriation cannot be augmented. The fund transfer or release also derogates the clear intention of the Congress not to appropriate any allocation for said item,” he added.

Former Speaker and Davao del Norte lawmaker Pantaleon Alvarez, for his part, argued that OVP stripped of its proposed P500 million confidential fund for 2024 so it can be realigned to the National Security Council (NSC).

Alvarez said the NSC was better suited to receive such funding given its mandate.

“It is imperative that these funds be channeled to an office uniquely equipped, both in terms of mandate and expertise, for their efficient stewardship. The P500 million would in fact better serve the NSC and its priority programs,” Alvarez said.

“As the head of the NSC, the National Security Adviser is well-equipped to make informed decisions regarding national security concerns. It is odd that the NSC was only allocated Php 120 million budget for confidential fund for 2024, but the OVP, a purely civilian office, has more than tripled of the same budget allocation with P500 million,” he  added.

The National Security Adviser is former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Lieutenant General Eduardo Año.

“The government consistently scored and won victories against the communist rebellion and insurgency steadily and convincingly through the years. And these were achieved during the previous administration practically without any confidential funds allocated to the OVP and [even] the DepEd (Department of Education),” Alvarez said.

"The figures are as clear as day. It is our duty to prioritize the judicious allocation of resources, especially when it comes to sensitive matters like national security. While confidential funds have their place, that place must be where they can be most effectively utilized, and that's within the NSC," he added. —KBK/NB, GMA Integrated News