Agencies may lose their confidential fund
The Pork Barrel Fund is out! Is Confidential Fund the new scheme?
The Office of the Vice President and other agencies may lose confidential funds or their secret funds if amendments are made to House Bill No. 8980, or the 2024 General Appropriations Bill.
The issue in the secret funds given to various government agencies is one of the hottest topics these past few months. Amid this issue, the OVP, under the leadership of Vice President Sara Duterte, has become the center of controversies.
Critics did not like the fact that the second-highest-ranking government official in the Philippines spent P125 million was spent for just 19 days.
The fact that the public has nothing to do in order to dissect the expenditures of these government agencies added to the reason for the criticisms.
The Inquirer reported that amendments are being tackled for House Bill No. 8980, or the 2024 General Appropriations Bill. House appropriations committee senior vice chairperson Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said, “The confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) will be scrapped, but we are still studying how other government agencies’ similar funds will be slashed.”
Apparently, this kind of secrecy is something unethical for many Filipinos. Before, critics were bashing the lawmakers for getting their pork barrel funds as controversies and issues surrounding this surfaced. Individuals and groups criticized lawmakers, especially representatives who allegedly just took their pork barrel funds but haven’t done any projects in their jurisdictions.
I want to cite the post that TV5 news anchor Julius Babao shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. “CONFIDENTIAL FUND ANG BAGONG PORK BARREL FUND!” he wrote and I agree.
CONFIDENTIAL FUND ANG BAGONG PORK BARREL FUND!
— julius babao (@juLiusbabao) October 3, 2023
Just like pork barrel, politicians can keep the information about how they spent their confidential funds. This is heartbreaking, especially for the marginalized sectors as we are seeing huge figures being spent on unknown things while a lot of Filipinos feel that the poor get poorer.
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