Rights group calls for CIF abolition

MANILA, Philippines — Rights alliance Karapatan is calling for the complete abolition of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), proposing their redirection toward essential social services.

The call was made amid the House of Representatives’ rejection of the allocation of P650 million in confidential funds to the Office of the Vice President and Department of Education.

Karapatan asserted in a statement on Sunday that “these funds should not be reallocated to entities associated with human rights violations within the government.”

Cristina Palabay, the group’s secretary general, underscores the dangers of diverting confidential funds to agencies like the National Security Council and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

According to Palabay, such realignment poses a significant threat to the well-being and security of the Filipino people.

“These confidential funds will only be used for killing, surveilling, threatening, and endangering the lives and security of individuals, resulting in more human rights violations,” Palabay said.

Palabay added that the CIF should “cease to be given” to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, who “have shown a lack of respect in human rights.”

She further criticized these agencies, including the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, as they prioritize their counter-insurgency program, allegedly spreading misleading narratives of surrenderees and rebel returnees while engaging in criminal activities such as abductions, unjust arrests and killings.

According to Palabay, the actions divert from the funds’ intended purpose of safeguarding national sovereignty.

She highlighted former president Rodrigo Duterte’s statements in a show broadcast over SMNI, suggesting that confidential funds were meant to “kill communists in Congress.”

Palabay contends that the remarks indicate the persistence of government-sponsored killings and human rights violations under the current regime.