KARAPATAN assailed the gargantuan Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF) allocated to the Office of the President (OP), saying it is tantamount to the biggest pork barrel allocation in the proposed 2025 budget. Standing at Php4.5 billion, it is 44% of the total amount allotted to CIF in the proposed 2025 budget.
“The CIF,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay, “is simply the old pork barrel in different garb since its ‘confidentiality’ generally puts it beyond the purview of state auditors. This means,” she added, “that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will not be held accountable for the disposition of such a huge amount.”
Palabay likewise noted that the OP’s Php4.5-billion allotment still does not include the Php100 million allocated for the National Security Council, the Php300 million allocated for the National Intelligence and Security Agency, and the Php8 billion allocated for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) — all of them agencies attached to the Office of the President.
“So, in reality,” said Palabay, “the Office of the President actually has Php12.9 billion at its disposal, all for ‘confidential’ and intelligence purposes, and all unprogrammed and beyond public scrutiny.”
“This is Php12.9 billion for the red-tagging and surveillance of dissenters, for psywar operations, including orchestrated social media attacks to vilify activists and for black operations to abduct, forcibly disappear or extrajudicially kill them,” said Palabay. “This is Php12.9 billion to suppress dissent and wage war on the Filipino people.”
Palabay called on Congress to rectify this injustice and rechannel the OP’s humongous CIF to more productive use. She concluded, “Imagine, with Php12.9 billion, how many more classrooms could be constructed, school books bought, hospital beds and other services provided that would be of real and lasting benefit to the Filipino people.”
