Senate minority leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III yesterday calls for cuts in the Marcos administration’s P9.29 billion confidential and intelligence funds in the proposed 2023 national budget and their realignment to the government’s disaster response programs. Pimentel made the pitch as he backed moves to increase the proposed P31 billion allocated for calamity response next year.
While next year’s proposed budget for calamity response is 55 percent higher than this year’s P20 billion, Pimentel said “it could easily be proven insufficient.”
“Let us cut confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) and re-channel this much-needed allocation to strengthen our disaster response capabilities,” Pimentel said.
Under the proposed national budget for next year, the CIFs are as follows: P4.5 billion for the Office of the President, P500 million for the Office of the Vice President, P806 million for the PNP, and P500 million for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, among others.
Aside from calamity response, Pimentel said additional funds can be poured to the country’s weather forecasting capabilities, construction of houses damaged by typhoons and earthquakes, and repair of damaged roads and bridges, among others.
Pimentel urged his colleagues in the Senate to support his proposal when they begin their plenary deliberations on the proposed budget next week.
“We must re-channel non-essential PAPs (projects, activities, and programs) both in the 2022 General Appropriations Act and the proposed P5.268 trillion national budget for 2023 in order to fund critical programs such as the calamity fund to enable speedy and efficient response to disasters,” he said.
“Could they use their intelligence funds to monitor typhoons and floods and give us the much-needed early warnings?” Pimentel added.
Pimentel said the government needs more budget for calamity and disaster response programs since the country has an average of 20 tropical cyclones a year.
“The fact that the Philippine is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is imperative to pump more funds into disaster and calamity response and recovery programs,” he said.
“We must ensure that resources are immediately available and accessible both by the national and local government,” he also said.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara has earlier said the Senate committee on finance, which he heads, “will always be open to changes which may help our people during these difficult times, and which will improve the government’s response to calamities.
Angara is set to sponsor his committee’s report on Tuesday next week on the proposed 2023 national budget.
