Sonny Angara

Senate finance committee chair Sen. Sonny Angara was in the hot seat last week as he defended the panel’s report on the draft P5.26-trillion national budget, including the much-criticized grant of P9.3 billion in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF). Such allocations are inevitably controversial since they are not subjected to audit. Angara rejected a proposal from the minority bloc to scrap confidential funds for civilian agencies whose functions don’t include surveillance. The most glaring CIF has been the P500 million proposed for the office of Vice President Sara Duterte. (Under Leni Robredo, the Office of the Vice President, or OVP, enjoyed no such largesse). During the period of amendments, Angara eventually agreed to take P120 million out of the CIF meant for the Department of Education (DepEd), which is also under Duterte, and just made it part of the agency’s regular funding. Still, DepEd got to keep P30 million in confidential funds. Angara earlier justified it, calling the OVP an “important office” that needs such support for its nationwide programs.