Senate to cut GMA’s P500-M intel fund

Senators have agreed to cut by P50 million President Arroyo’s P500-million intelligence fund and give the money to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Sen. Panfilo Lacson made the proposal during yesterday’s deliberation on this year’s projected P804-billion national budget.

Agreeing with Lacson, Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., Senate finance committee chairman, said more money should be earmarked for the government’s anti-drug campaign.

Villar said his committee has raised to P109 million the PDEA’s proposed budget for this year, from the P79 million which the House of Representatives had earlier approved.

Villar said Mrs. Arroyo had given the PDEA an initial funding of P50 million from her intelligence fund upon the agency’s establishment last year.

Senate President Franklin Drilon supported the stand of Lacson and Villar.

Drilon said "as a matter of courtesy," the Senate does not touch the proposed budget for the Office of the President.

"But in the case of the P500-million intelligence fund, this was an appropriation that was not originally part of the budget proposal for the Office of the President," he said.

"This was a Senate initiative."

The Senate added the huge fund to Malacañang’s budget during the time of President Joseph Estrada, when Lacson was chief of the Philippine National Police and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.

The addition was made upon the suggestion of Senators John Osmeña and Juan Ponce Enrile.

During the budget deliberation, Sen. Edgardo Angara also urged his colleagues to allocate more funds for education to stop the decline of teaching in the country.

The Senate should take between P3 billion and P5 billion from the debt service appropriation of more than P400 billion and add the amount to this year’s proposed budget for education, Angara said.