By Dang Samson Garcia
MARIKINA City 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo on Friday confirmed that the Department of Education and nine other government agencies will be affected by the plan of the House of Representatives to realign confidential and intelligence funds in the P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024.
House leaders representing big political parties earlier came out with a joint statement on their collective decision to reallocate the CIFs of civilian agencies to agencies that have to do intelligence and security work in a bid to address the escalating threats in the West Philippine Sea.
“Sa ngayon po ang apektadong ahensiya ay nasa 10 agencies,” Quimbo, senior vice chairperson of the Committee on Appropriations, said.
The Office of the Vice President and DepEd have a combined confidential funds of P650 million in next year’s budget.
“Patuloy po natin pang pinag-aaralan, tyina-chop-chop pa po ang iba pang mga pondo sa iba’t ibang mga ahensya. Patuloy po ang pag-rationalize natin ng confidential and intelligence funds,” Quimbo said.
The House approved the 2024 budget on third and final reading on Wednesday.
