Pimentel: Realign confidential, intel funds for disaster response

Relatives grieve at a mass burial site where the Sapi family buried seven of their members, victims of the landslide in the nearby village at the height of Typhoon Nalgae, in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, southern Philippines on October 31, 2022.

AFP / Ferdinandh Cabrera

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Thursday called on his fellow lawmakers to slash confidential and intelligence funds and rechannel them to disaster response and recovery programs in the wake of the devastation wrought by Severe Tropical Storm “Paeng.”

“Let us cut confidential and intelligence funds and rechannel this much-needed allocation to strengthen our disaster response capabilities,” Pimentel said in a statement.

The proposed budget for 2023 contains P9.29 billion in confidential and intelligence funds, around half or P4.5 billion of which would go to the Office of the President. Due to the confidential nature of these allocations, they are notoriously hard to audit.

Full Story: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/11/03/2221275/pimentel-realign-confidential-intel-funds-disaster-response