DOJ's 2024 confidential funds slashed to P168M under Senate panel version

The Senate finance committee has slashed the Department of Justice-Office of the Secretary’s request of P256 million in confidential funds for 2024 to P168 million.

This was disclosed by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel during the Senate plenary deliberations on DOJ’s P35.455 billion proposed budget for next year.

“Our committee report reflects the amount of P168 million for confidential funds of the Office of Secretary,” Pimentel said, which was confirmed by Senate finance committee chairman Sonny Angara, who defended the budget of the department.

Under the 2024 National Expenditures Program (NEP) proposed by the Executive Department, the DOJ was given P256.696 million for its confidential expenses next year.

The Office of the Justice Secretary has received P526 million confidential funds for 2023, according to Angara.

“So the [General Appropriations Act] for the 2023 gave the Justice Secretary P500 million in confidential funds, then let’s compare it to the committee report for next year P168 million.  Okay, nakita natin yung big drop po, pagbaba. We have established that, bumaba,” Pimentel noted.

While the confidential funds for 2024 had been slashed by the Senate, Pimentel still questioned the inclusion of the budget for the Witness Protection Program (WPP) in the DOJ Office of the Secretary’s confidential funds.

According to Angara, one of the uses of the confidential funds of the Justice secretary is the expenses related to the benefits, protection, livelihood, and counselling of state witnesses.

But Pimentel noted that there is already a P241 million line item for the witness protection subprogram, of which P190 million is lodged under the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).

“Ang point ko e nagagamit din pala 'yung MOOE ng WPP for the explanation earlier mentioned by our sponsor, yung mga financial assistance, livelihood, burial benefits, nagagamit din pala,” Pimentel said.

Angara, in response, said the nature of the program is “meant to be quite secret.”

If the confidential funds for the WPP will be converted into a line item, Angara said the DOJ is required to publicize and even put it on Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGeps), a central portal for all government procurements.

Angara then cited a provision in Republic Act 6981 or the Witness Protection Security and Benefit Act which stated that “All proceedings involving application for admission into the Program and the action taken thereon shall be confidential in nature. No information or documents given or submitted in support thereof shall be released except upon written order of the Department or the proper court.”

Under the said law, Angara said violations of confidentiality of proceedings can be penalized.

“They might be exposing the details of the contracts…The addresses, the vehicles, etcetera, they prefer to conduct this to preserve the confidentiality, your honor,” Angara said.

Apart from the WPP, the Justice Secretary’s confidential funds will be given to the Office of Cybercrime and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) as these are under the DOJ’s Office of the Secretary.

The following offices will receive separate confidential funds:

• P20 million for the Bureau of Immigration;
• P175.4 million for the National Bureau of Investigation; and
• P10 million for the Office of the Solicitor General.

Since Angara mentioned the P10 million confidential funds for OSG, Pimentel recalled the statement of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra during the committee deliberations on DOJ’s budget where the latter stated that he can do without the such funds.

“During the committee hearing, I think the office is willing to waive, that’s what I got. So are we retaining this or should we follow the wish of the head of the agency that it does not need the confidential funds, [that] his agency can live without it?” Pimentel asked.

Angara, in response, said he would welcome it if Pimentel would make a motion to delete OSG’s confidential funds at the proper time.

Apart from the OSG, the Office of the Vice President, the Department of Education, and the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) had already waived their original requests for confidential funds.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman requested to limit their confidential funds to P1 million until 2025.

Earlier, Angara disclosed that the amount of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) was reduced from P10.1 billion to P9.8 billion in the current version of the proposed 2024 national budget.

This happened after the Senate adopted the House of Representatives' decision to reduce the CIF in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

Under the National Expenditures Program or the President’s version of the 2024 budget, Angara said the total amount of CIF is at P10.1 billion.—AOL, GMA Integrated News