President Benigno Aquino 3rd deserves to be praised for slashing his P650-million intelligence fund by P250 million. It shows him to be a man of integrity and self-abnegation. One might say that in this matter, President PNoy is a fount of intelligence and wisdom. He no doubt wishes his act to be taken as an example by other heads of government agencies, each of whom also has an intelligence fund.
That is still a large amount. And it takes integrity and a generous spirit of frugality to give up P250 million that he could actually use in any way he pleases—as long as he wrote in a piece of paper that it was for gathering intelligence and placed the piece of paper in a sealed envelop and gave this to the government auditors. The auditors then take the President’s word that the money was properly used for intelligence gathering.
Liquidation by certification
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Franklin Drilon wants the entire concept of the intelligence fund for non-police and military agencies reviewed and the money placed in the regular budget. He described how the money is accounted for to meet legal requirements—without proper and detailed examination by the Commission on Audit.
Malacañang agrees to the review of the intelligence fund system.
Drilon told media this manner of accounting for the intelligence fund is called “liquidation by certification.” Among government people it is also called the “envelope system of liquidation,” he added.
“You write in a piece of paper the use of intelligence fund to purchase intelligence information from a certain Juan de la Cruz. You put the piece of paper in an envelope, then you seal it, and you give it to the Commission on Audit [COA[, and you have liquidated the amount,” the senator (and former senate president) said. He added that the COA auditors have the power to open the sealed envelop and read what it says. But they cannot question the President (or any official who has intelligence funds has submitted a certificate of liquidation).
Senator Drilon and everybody else agrees that security officers of the government—especially those in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration Department, and perhaps even the specially designated units of the Bureaus of Customs and Internal Revenue—should have an intelligence fund. That budget is necessary.
Intelligence funds have been abused
But for other government offices, it does seem ridiculous to have department secretaries and bureau chiefs given intelligence funds exempt from the rules of transparency and COA scrutiny.
Senator Drilon says the use of the intel fund has been abused so much by previous administrations.
So he wants to place the intelligence fund under regular budget items rather than being included as a lump sum under the label “intelligence fund” which is not subject to proper auditing procedures.
The Ilongo senator wants intelligence funds to be reprogrammed “to line functions” and therefore no longer be treated as confidential. These should then be subject to regular auditing by COA.
The 2010 budget allocates P1.380 billion for intelligence funds.
The total 2011 budget allocation for intelligence funds for the various offices in the PNoy administration is P1.425 billion. This lump sum intelligence fund does not cover the intelligence funds for military and police use. And this P1.425 billion neither includes intelligence funds allocated by local government units for their own use nor funds allocated by the directors of government corporations and other state enterprises for their own use.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile agrees—even if he says the P1.425 billion for the intelligence fund in the current budget is a small part of the 2011 P1.6-trillion budget—that intelligence funds for non-security agencies and offices should be made part of the regular budgets and be subject to normal auditing.
Mr. Enrile said the President’s office is not an intelligence gathering agency. It is in fact a user of intelligence obtained by all the intelligence-gathering units.
Legacy of the Cold War and Martial Law regime
Every government office was given an intelligence budget during the Cold War years. The purpose of the fund is for the chief of the agency or office to be able to unearth useful and vital information for the national interest, often related to national security, that would otherwise never be obtained.
It reflects the anti-communist paranoia that pervaded the Martial Law regime.
It veritably made each head of agency, and his or her close assistants, an extension of the police and military intelligence service. Its use is supposed to be totally sub rosa. That is why the intelligence fund is not audited in detail by the Commission on Audit. That system must be abolished. Fount of intelligence and wisdom
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