Pimentel to let Marcos keep confidential funds, but will seek cut in intel funds

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III speaks during the Senate's plenary deliberations on the proposed 2023 budget.

Voltaire F. Domingo / Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said Tuesday he will let the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. keep the P2.25 billion it is requesting in confidential funds, but will still try to have the other P2.25 billion it is asking for intelligence funds cut.

“I’m entertaining siguro as a compromise. ‘Yung P2.25 billion niya na confidential funds hayaan na natin pero hindi siya intelligence practitioner eh. User ‘yun of information. So ‘yung P2.25 billion niya na intelligence funds, ‘yun ang pwede niyang i-let go,” Pimentel told reporters in a chance interview.

(I’m maybe entertaining a compromise. Its P2.25 billion in confidential funds, we’ll let it slide, but it’s not an intelligence practitioner. It’s a user of information. So the P2.25 billion in intelligence funds can be let go.)

The Office of the President under Marcos requested a total of P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds, the same amount that his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, asked for in the 2022 budget.

Full Story: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/11/15/2224002/pimentel-let-marcos-keep-confidential-funds-will-seek-cut-intel-funds