Not so confidential funds

Properly defined, confidential and intelligence funds are the total amount of allocations set aside in the national budget for expenses that involve surveillance and intelligence information gathering activities while intelligence funds are for intelligence expenses related to information gathering activities of uniformed and military personnel and intelligence practitioners that have a direct impact on national security.

- PIA ROCES MORATO

As a rule, national government agencies (NGAs) can get both confidential and intelligence funds, while local governments and GOCCs can only get confidential funds. Having said this, while in the first year of the Marcos administration, both budgets of the OP and OVP were passed quickly, it is quite intriguing that to date, the OVP budget is still lengthily in question and specifically on the so called utilization of confidential funds.

While the people's money most certainly should always be accounted for, I am, among many others, in awe by the House hearing on the confidential funds issue of VP Sara Duterte.