Not a blank check for Sara

A year, indeed, is an eternity in politics.

Twelve months ago, no less than President Marcos’ son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, shielded Vice President Sara Duterte from hostile questions during the House appropriations committee’s discussions on her office’s 2024 spending program.

Opposition lawmakers had hoped to quiz her on the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) share of confidential funds in prior fiscal years, including in 2022, when it spent P125 million of the hard-to-audit allocation in 11 days. But on the strength of the young Marcos’ intervention, all questions were torpedoed in the guise of parliamentary courtesy, and it took 15 minutes for Duterte to hurdle the hearing.

Had the panel allowed former President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter to be interrogated on the secret appropriations earmarked for her office, along with those for the Department of Education (DepEd), which she headed concurrently until she quit in June, perhaps the issue would have been sufficiently ventilated and put to rest.

Alas, that was not the case.

Spoiling for a fight

One year later, the Vice President faced a House panel that was much less friendly than in 2023. This time, no Marcos relative was present to back her up, as she presented the OVP’s budget for next year. But it was obvious, too, that the country’s No. 2 official had come spoiling for a fight, hackles raised and bristling with non-answers.

Setting aside the testy exchanges that have become fodder for impeachment talk, the questions asked during the Aug. 27 hearing — to which Duterte had no useful responses — betray a systemic problem that extends beyond her office: the lack of rigorous oversight mechanisms for confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) in civilian agencies.

The heart of the matter may lie in the nature of CIF itself. By design, these funds are meant to be used discreetly to protect national security interests. However, the ambiguity in the guidelines governing the funds has given non-security-related offices, such as the OVP, an undeserved access to them.

Confidential expenses are for surveillance operations to thwart illegal acts and prevent harm to an agency, while intelligence expenses are for gathering information with a direct impact on national security, often by military and police.

Prone to abuse

Under a joint 2015 budget and audit circular, agencies must present plans and submit a quarterly accomplishment report on CIF use, while the Commission on Audit (COA) performs a post-audit of the liquidation of disbursements based on the offices’ own submissions.

Except for internal controls and auditing protocols, how agencies use CIF is generally kept secret. But as the OVP’s case makes evident, such opacity in the system is not only vulnerable but prone to abuse.

In fact, it took a subpoena by the House committee to compel the COA to release — to lawmakers and not the public — its audit reports on the OVP’s and DepEd’s respective confidential funds spending under Duterte.

At last week’s hearing, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro gave a breakdown of how the OVP’s P125 million in secret funds were spent in 2022: P14 million in purchase of information, P10 million in payment of rewards, P16 million in rental of safe houses, P35 million in purchase of supplies, P40 million in food aid, and P10 million in travel expenses. It was further revealed that the COA ordered the OVP via a notice of disallowance to return P73 million of the amount, as the office had failed to document its purported surveillance operations.

A double violation

But as constitutional law expert Michael Henry Yusingco noted, Duterte’s office had no inherent mandate to engage in such activities. “In the first place, it was not appropriate to give the Vice President confidential and intelligence funds,” he said.

“And now, we find that it wasn’t even spent on intelligence gathering and law enforcement operations. So, it’s a violation twice over, a double violation,” Yusingco said.

It took political headwinds to force lawmakers to confront Duterte about her secret funds, which shows how the system was built on a house of cards. Consider this: If the Dutertes were still in the good graces of the administration, would these matters have been raised at all?

Granted, the OVP withdrew its request for CIF last year and made no new request for CIF in its proposed 2025 outlay, but what about when the political tides shift yet again?

Which brings us to the crux of the issue: The CIF is not a blank check for any public office, let alone civilian ones with zero security-related mandates like the OVP.

The revelations at the House are a wake-up call for lawmakers to revisit the rules governing CIF. Their challenge is to strike a balance between the demands of secrecy and transparency, and ensure that the funds are serving their lawful purpose—protecting the nation from security threats. This is not only about holding Duterte accountable, but more critically, safeguarding the integrity of taxpayer money.