Senate to revive oversight panel for intel funds

SENATE President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri on Wednesday filed a resolution seeking to restore the oversight committee on confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs).

“It has long been the practice of the Senate to constitute a Select Oversight Committee for confidential and intelligence funds,” Zubiri said.

The committee will be composed of three members of the majority and one minority, and will be headed by the Senate president.

“Since the 10th Congress, the Senate has always formed the Select Oversight Committee, and we are going to continue that for the 19th Congress,” Zubiri added.

The 2023 General Appropriations Budget has marked P4,330,048 for confidential funds and P4,957,627 as intelligence funds for a total of P9,287,675.

“It is our job, as an independent and democratic Senate, to keep watch over the use of the national budget. That is especially true for these sensitive funds, which are not subject to the auditing rules and procedures of the Commission on Audit. Being that we cannot identify the particulars of their usage ahead of time, the committee is our way of subjecting these funds to checks and balances,” Zubiri said.

Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said the oversight committee on intelligence and confidential funds will be fully revived once the proposed P5.268 trillion 2023 national budget is enacted into law.

The minority bloc has questioned the CIFs’ appropriations for agencies whose mandate has nothing to do with national security such as the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

The Senate Select Oversight Committee on Intelligence and Confidential Funds was created in May 2017 by virtue of a Senate resolution passed under the same Congress.

“As in any Senate committee and oversight committee, if not constituted and no members were elected, the oversight committee cannot function,” former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said.

Former Senate president Franklin Drilon backed the Senate’s move to reconstitute its oversight committee on CIFs.

“The confidential and intelligence funds can be scrutinized by Congress in the exercise of its oversight function. I call upon Congress to activate the oversight committee on intelligence and confidential funds,” Drilon said.

“In the budget cycle, they can reduce or completely remove the allocation for CIFs where they see abuse when the accounting is made in an executive session,” he added.