Edcel Lagman to Sara Duterte: Confidential funds breed corruption
Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman called out the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under Sara Duterte for its confidential funds worth P500 million proposed in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
The lawmaker mentioned the vice president’s office had no jurisdiction in national security concerns.
“The OVP is not a surveillance agency and has no jurisdiction over matters of national security,” he said. “The novels of Agatha Christie and the exploits of Sherlock Holmes are not staple readings for basic education and the mandate of DepEd does not include detective activities,” Lagman said.”
He added that the funds “breed corruption, and the more enormous the funds are, the greater the magnitude is for the possibility of graft.”
The OVP’s confidential funds raised questions from some lawmakers and members of civil society, after an entire administration went by with former vice president Leni Robredo having no allotment for confidential funds. Former Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Rep. Antonio Tinio even went as far as calling it a “discretionary pork barrel.”
“This is unprecedented in our history. No public official, aside from the president, has been given a discretionary pork barrel this huge,” Tinio said.
The Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte also has P150 million in confidential funds under the NEP.
The House committee on appropriations, consisting of Reps. Elizaldy Co, Stella Quimbo, Manuel Jose Dalipe, and Marcelino Libanan are now collating amendments from different representatives for the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), which when signed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., becomes the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the national budget.
“Maybe in a few days, we will be able to forward it already to the Senate. We’re just trying to pick which amendments [to incorporate],” Dalipe said.
Mark Ernest Famatigan is a news writer who focuses on Philippine politics. He is an advocate for press freedom and regularly follows developments in the Philippine economy. The views expressed are his own.
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