An embarrassment of secrets

Not too long ago, there were only “contingent” and “special” funds. The meaning was deemed to be straightforward: a contingency refers to an emergency, or an unforeseen special event requiring the rapid allocation of public funds.

“Intelligence funds” were associated mainly with national security and peace and order matters. Except for the sectors targeted in the counterinsurgency campaign, few people questioned the allocation of intelligence funds for the military, police and other agencies with security-related mandates.

 Today we’re confronted with a dizzying array of terms for billions of pesos in public funds that are subjected to practically zero government auditing, with their utilization up to the full personal discretion of the beneficiary agency or its head.

 Apart from contingent and special funds, there are the “confidential” funds for civilian agencies, and the “extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses” for the two chambers of Congress.  

Local government units, meanwhile, seem to have both confidential and intelligence funds – the whole CIF hog. LGUs are authorized to declare, at will, up to a third of their annual appropriation as secret funds.

The amounts involved are not peanuts: a chartered city, for example, can have an annual budget of P1.5 billion, which will allow the mayor to declare around P460 million as confidential funds.

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Vice President Sara Duterte has not deigned to enlighten the public about how she intends to spend P500 million in confidential funds for the Office of the VP plus another P150 million for the Department of Education, which she concurrently heads.

But with the House of Representatives rejecting her secret funding proposal, former president Rodrigo Duterte, in a rare public defense of his daughter, said he saw VP Sara’s intended purposes. These, he said, include conducting seminars, field trips and other activities that would ignite patriotism among the youth.

“She will be spending it on strengthening the PMT in high school to instill a love for the country among the youth,” he said, referring to the preparatory military training.

But why should such expenditures require secret funding? All along we thought such expenditures must be sourced from the regular budget of government offices, covered by official receipts, properly identified for funding during congressional budget deliberations and subject to regular full audit. 

“Special funds,” we’re finding out, can also be used for public relations and entertainment purposes. “Public relations” can cover expenses for “KBL” – kasal, binyag, libing (wedding, baptism, funeral).

Those pakimkim, abuloy and wreaths you receive from “generous” elected officials for KBL, folks, came from your own tax money. As we say in Pinoyspeak, you’re being fried in your own oil.

 Why do such expenditures have to be exempted from regular audit? It’s understandable that people who provide intel to security forces would want to keep their identities top secret, for their personal safety. But why would owners of venues for seminars and special events, and operators of restaurants and flower shops want to keep their identities and businesses confidential? They are required by law to issue official receipts and pay taxes. Unless they are engaged in illegal government deals, surely they would even want to have their enterprises publicized to invite more business.

Unlike in the security sector, where the sources of intel are the ones who need full confidentiality, officials in civilian agencies are the ones who want to keep their utilization of people’s money top secret. This goes against constitutional provisions on public accountability.

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Duterte, in his uncharacteristic public defense of his daughter, lashed out at Speaker Martin Romualdez, widely believed to be the ambitious “tambaloslos” (a mythical monster with oversized cojones) whom VP Sara had slammed after that failed attempt to unseat President Marcos’ favorite cousin from the top House post.

Romualdez has been “feeding congressmen with cash” because of his presidential ambitions, Duterte claimed, as he called for an audit of House expenditures.

A former political adviser said Duterte, who should know whereof he speaks, could be referring to the annual extraordinary expense allocation of P1.5 billion to P2 billion enjoyed by a House speaker. No wonder Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo allegedly plotted a coup (she denied it) to replace Romualdez. And when GMA consequently was stripped of her post as senior deputy speaker, her ally VP Sara threw a fit and quit the Lakas-CMD.

The House super majority is circling the wagons, taking offense at Duterte’s description of the chamber as the “most rotten institution” and pointing out that the Office of the President had the greatest surge in its CIF during his watch. 

House secretary general Reginald Velasco said the House has no CIF and its extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses are subject to regular accounting and auditing rules. The House has passed the COA audit, he said.

Senators led by Senate President Migz Zubiri said the same thing, denying like the House members that they have confidential funds.

Duterte’s former spokesman Harry Roque, a former party-list congressman, said extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses are worse than CIF in the public accountability department, with no OR or other documentation required. During his stint in Congress, Roque said all that was required was a “certification of expenses.” That sounds more opaque than an “acknowledgment receipt.”

Panfilo Lacson had been saying this all along, having served as a senator: while the pork barrel was officially removed, lawmakers have many other ways of circumventing the prohibition. But accounting expertise and patience are needed to peel away the layers that conceal these “pork” replacements in the national budget. 

Thanks to what is shaping up as warfare and disintegration of the vaunted UniTeam, these replacements are gradually coming to light.

Taxpayers have a message to those who believe they are entitled to “unli” authority without accountability in using people’s money: a pox on all your houses.