Arroyo comes to VP Sara’s rescue, thumbs down questioning of confidential funds

Manila Bulletin

Former president and incumbent Pampanga 2nd district Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed disapproval of her House colleagues' persistent questioning of Vice President Sara Duterte’s controversial spending of P125 million confidential funds during an 11-day period in 2022.  READ: https://mb.com.ph/2024/8/27/arroyo-comes-to-vp-sara-s-rescue-thumbs-down-questioning-of-confidential-funds-1  Subscribe to the Manila Bulletin Online channel! - https://www.youtube.com/TheManilaBulletin  Visit our website at http://mb.com.ph Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manilabulletin  Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/manila_bulletin Instagram: https://instagram.com/manilabulletin Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@manilabulletin  #ManilaBulletinOnline #ManilaBulletin #LatestNews

Transcript

00:00Madam Chair, maybe the first observation on the budget for 2024,

00:08the Vice President said, Madam Chair, that slow and low utilization.

00:15We saw that in the presentation.

00:18So the utilization is very low.

00:22But of course, I will just comment, it is faster in the confidential funds.

00:28100% in 11 days.

00:30Madam Chair, so according to the utilization of the confidential and intelligence funds

00:41submitted by the COA to us, we have here surveillance and monitoring.

00:50Madam Chair, the purchase of information out of 125 million confidential funds in 2022,

00:58purchase of information, 14 million, payment of reward, 10 million,

01:03rental and other incidental expenses relative to the maintenance of safe houses, 16 million,

01:09purchase of supplies, 35 million, provision of medical and food aid, 40 million,

01:16payment of incentives or traveling relative to confidential operations, 10 million.

01:24So a total of 125 million conducted surveillance in 132 areas in 11 days.

01:33So 100% utilization.

01:36Madam Chair, I still request for the rules of the budget hearings.

01:43Do you want me to answer, Ma'am?

01:46Yes, Madam.

01:47This is a hearing of the budget of 2025.

01:53Where are the confidential funds?

01:56The question is confidential funds.

01:58Where are they?

01:59Madam Chair, this is a continuing question.

02:08During the last budget, 125 million was not explained.

02:16We know that this is not in the budget of 2022.

02:20So Madam Chair, in our rule, all of these are being asked.

02:25So according to the budget, whether it is in the past, because we can see the utilization of the budgets.

02:32Even in the past years, we can discuss this.

02:37Am I right, Madam Chair?

02:39I will agree with you, Hon. France Castro.

02:43You may proceed, Madam Vice President.

02:45That is my answer, Ma'am.

02:46Where our topic here and what you submitted to us is the budget proposal of 2025.

02:56Where in the budget proposal of 2025 is the item confidential funds.

03:03In aid of legislation, it is in your rules, right?

03:09The discussion should be germane to the topic.

03:12The topic is the 2025 budget proposal.

03:17Madam Vice President, Hon. France Castro has already provided a sufficient explanation for why she asked the question.

03:26So please proceed with your answer.

03:28Madam Chair, why are we discussing the budget of 2023 and 2024?

03:34I believe that our former President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, would like to interject.

03:43It is an observation made in relation to the point of order.

03:48Because in the beginning, it was settled that the issue would be the 2025 budget.

03:54And in all our hearings, to what I recall, when we want to question something about performance, we question the 2024 budget, not the 2023 budget.

04:08What is being questioned now is the 2023 budget, which was discussed very extensively last year.

04:16And that is the reason why the House removed the confidential funds.

04:20So that issue has already been, to my mind, for purposes of the budget hearing, laid to rest.

04:27So that's my observation, Madam Chair.

04:30We note that, Madam former President, but of course we know that the funding of 2023 can still be a continuing appropriation until 2024.

04:47So in the same way, 2022 can still be a continuing appropriation until 2023.

04:52We also know that last year, we passed the 2022 confidential funds.

05:00And in fact, we left a homework for the COA.

05:04We told them that they need to finish the audit by November, I believe mid-November of last year.

05:11And since then, we don't know what happened.

05:15So that's the reason for why we are discussing this.

05:20And it's a big amount of money.

05:23I believe we owe it to the people to understand what happened.

05:27Of course, we removed it in 2024.

05:30We want to know if what we did was right, because we might have made a mistake.

05:35So I think it's worth assessing what we did in 2024 in order to know what to do in 2025.

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