Martires asks Senate to limit Ombudsman's confidential funds to P1M

Ombudsman Samuel Martires has requested the Senate finance committee to limit his office’s confidential funds to P1 million for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Martires made the formal request through a letter dated October 6 addressed to Senate finance committee chair Sonny Angara.

“Consistent with my earlier pronouncement before your Committee, I would like to officially request that notwithstanding its investigative functions, that the Office of the Ombudsman be appropriated the amount of ONE MILLION PESOS (P 1,000,000.00) for its Confidential and Intelligence Fund (CIF) in FYs (fiscal year) 2024 and 2025 or until the end of my term of office as Ombudsman,” Martires said in a letter obtained by GMA News Online.

Angara confirmed receiving Martires’ letter in a Viber message to GMA News Online.

Under the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the Office of the Ombudsman was allotted P51.468 million confidential funds.

During the budget deliberations both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, Martires said that he is amenable to the deletion of confidential funds lodged in his office if “it will only taint the reputation of the office and of the Ombudsman and its officers.”

Martires said the deletion of such budget proposal won’t affect the functions of the anti-graft body.

“On the matter of confidential funds, I’d like to be the first from the investigating agencies to request Congress--that if it will, as I have been saying, it will only taint the reputation, the integrity of the office, as well as of the Ombudsman and its officers-- they'll not have confidential funds during my term of office… I think we can survive without the confidential funds,” Martires said during the budget deliberations.

He added that the Office of the Ombudsman can still gather information through other means.

“I can always smile at my friends and probably treat them for over a cup of coffee. We can do that for us… Nakukuha lahat ito sa pangiti-ngiti sa kape, ‘di ba, sa mga PR, PR? Ganun lang naman ‘yan eh hindi naman kailangan gastusan lahat ng pera,” said Martires.

(We can accomplish a over coffee or good PR. We don't need to spend a lot of money.) 

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives removed P1.23 billion worth of confidential funds of five agencies, including the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

House Committee on Appropriations senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo said this happened after the House small panel agreed to reallocate P194 billion from the proposed 2024 national budget for 2024 — including the P1.23 billion of confidential fund — to other government budget items that address the rising cost of commodities, seek to develop and protect the West Philippine Sea, and are subject to auditing procedures.

“Our panel introduced P194 billion worth of institutional amendments. The main goal was to rationalize the allocation of resources to fight inflation, invest in human capital and in our country’s future,” Quimbo said at a press briefing. 

Aside from OVP and DepEd, other agencies which lost their confidential fund allocation under the House’s proposed amendments are Department of Agriculture, Department of Information and Communications Technology, and Department of Foreign Affairs. —VAL, GMA Integrated News