P-Noy to reduce his intel funds by P250 million

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has decided to reduce his confidential and intelligence funds next year by P250 million.

Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chairman of the House appropriations committee, revealed the President’s decision yesterday in the course of answering questions from Minority Leader Edcel Lagman on the proposed P4-billion budget of the Office of the President for next year.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and his Palace staff helped Abaya in providing answers to Lagman and in defending the OP budget.

Abaya said under Mr. Aquino’s original budget proposal, the President had a total of P650 million in funds for confidential and intelligence expenses.

“However, in an errata submitted by Budget Secretary (Florencio) Abad to the committee last week, these have been reduced to P400 million,” he said.

For this year, the OP has P650 million in intelligence funds. It is not clear how much of that former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had used, and how much Mr. Aquino inherited when he took over last June 30.

Mrs. Arroyo controlled nearly P6 billion of such funds during her nine-year presidency. She has not told the public how she had used the money.

A copy of the two-page budget errata obtained by The STAR showed that P200 million of the P250-million reduction in the President’s intelligence outlay was taken from the P500-million confidential funds of the Anti-Transnational Organized Crime Commission (ATOCC).

The remaining P50 million was taken from a separate P1.3-billion appropriation in the OP budget for “general administration and support services.” This item includes “P150 million for confidential and intelligence expenses.”

The errata also showed that Malacañang has reinstated the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PACC) in place of ATOCC because the latter “has no legal basis yet.”

It was then President Fidel Ramos who created PACC and named then Vice President Joseph Estrada as its head.

Congress appropriated the commission’s huge intelligence fund during the Estrada administration upon the initiative of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and his former Senate colleague John Osmeña. Mrs. Arroyo kept the PACC when she took over from Estrada.

Of the P250-million reduction in his intelligence funds, Mr. Aquino allotted P83 million to the Truth Commission and P50 million (not P200 million as earlier reported) to the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office headed by former broadcaster Ricky Carandang.

He set aside the balance as “capital outlay,” the budget language for equipment funds.

In the course of questioning Abaya, Lagman also tackled Presidential Proclamation 50, in which Mr. Aquino granted amnesty to the Magdalo group of rebel soldiers.

The opposition leader questioned a provision in the proclamation that declares that the amnesty grant “takes effect immediately.” “This disregards the constitutional requirement of congressional concurrence before an amnesty proclamation could take effect,” he said.

Abaya said the President did not intend to disregard Congress since he has submitted his proclamation to the legislature for its concurrence.

He said the provision Lagman referred to was patterned after similar sections in amnesty declarations made by previous presidents.

The House eventually approved the P4-billion OP budget for 2011.  

SC insists on higher budget

The Supreme Court (SC), meanwhile, reiterated its appeal for a bigger budget for 2011, belying claims by Sen. Franklin Drilon that it still has savings of P236.7 million in its judicial development fund (JDF) and special allowance for judges (SAJ).

“The funds have already been spent in 2009. And those figures mentioned were taken from the report of the COA (Commission on Audit) ending December 2008,” SC spokesman and court administrator Jose Midas Marquez told reporters. – With Edu Punay and Delon Porcalla