THE Office of the President (OP) is seeking an 80-percent increase in its confidential expenses as well as intelligence expenses, reaching a total of P4.5 billion for 2020.
Data from the 2020 National Expenditure Program submitted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed that confidential expenses as well as intelligence expenses will have the biggest allocation among the P6.70-billion total Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses of the OP.
Inclusive of automatic appropriations, the proposed budget for OP amounted to P8.25 billion. This is 20.91 percent higher than its 2019 budget allocation of 6.82 billion.
Should Congress approve the proposed budget allocation for these two items, OP’s budget for confidential expenses and intelligence expenses will rise by a billion each from the current P1.25 billion to P2.25 billion, or a total of P4.5 billion for both expenses.
Malacañang, however, was quick to defend the hike in its proposed budget allocation, saying the OP “needs to have the resources to determine the threats against the State.”
“It is hard to secure the whole country. You need money. You need people, you need machines, technology. There are a lot of of things to spend on,” said Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo.
“The Office of the President is one of the better offices that can secure the security of the land,” he added.
Despite the ongoing issues on the country’s territorial waters especially with Chinese warships passing through without notice, the executive branch allotted only P10 million in intelligence expenses to the Department of National Defense and P39.74 million for the same item under the Philippine Navy.
to OP and not to other departments, Panelo said there is no problem with this as he argued that this would even help other departments. Besides, the President, he said is also not exempted from accountability and allayed fears the funds will be used for corruption.
“All of those who handle money are required by law to account so I don’t think there’s a problem with that,” he said.
Congress on Thursday started the budget deliberations for the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget. This was 12 percent higher compared to 2019 national budget of P3.662 trillion.
Image credits: Robinson Ninal Jr./ Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP