Groups expressed concerns over the proposed reallocation of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) to the National Security Agency (NSC), National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and two other agencies intended to bolster national security.
In a joint statement released on Wednesday, ranking solons of the House of Representatives (HOR) agreed to the said CIF reallocation citing the recent and ongoing Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
These solons are also the co-authors of the Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF) during HOR deliberations. MWF ratified into law as Republic Act No. 11954 last July 18.
Aside from NSC and NICA, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources are among the agencies proposed to receive additional funding.
Progressive solons Makabayan bloc said they await further information regarding the announcement of the House leadership on the CIF. Meanwhile, they reiterated that confidential funds must be abolished alongside intelligence funds.
“Reallocating funds to address external threats, particularly the aggressive incursions of China in our exclusive economic zone, is necessary, but not all these funds need to be confidential in nature,” they added.
The Makabayan bloc has since participated in plenary debates to scrutinize the budget allocations for the following government agencies and departments including the offices of the President and Vice-President which proposed a whopping P4.56 billion and P150 million for CIF in the 2024 budget, respectively.
Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) noted NSC and NICA are agencies at the helm of counter-insurgency operations which would lead to the worsening human rights situation in the country.
“Why not abolish confidential funds altogether, and instead funnel taxpayers’ money into social services like education and health?” SCMP national chairperson Kej Andres questioned.
On one hand, the NSC is responsible for the implementation of the five-year phasing for National Security Policy drafted by the Marcos Jr. administration as chaired by Marcos Jr. himself and headed by Gen. Eduardo Año as its director-general and the national security adviser. On the other hand, NICA is responsible for intelligence and surveillance activities.
For the 2024 budget, the NSC has proposed P629.28 million or a 210.48 million increase from its current budget of P418. 8 million under the General Appropriations Act (GAA); while NICA proposed P1.432 billion or a 47 million increase from its current budget of P1.385 billion under GAA.
“As the original proposal to inject CIF into civilian agencies is to use these agencies for militarization and intelligence activities, diverting CIF to NSC and NICA will only continue these kinds of human rights violations under other agencies, still a misuse of people’s money aimed towards fascism,” Andres furthered.
Karapatan recorded 778 political prisoners in the country, 78 of whom were illegally arrested and detained under the Marcos Jr. administration as of June 2023.
The rights groups deplored the aggravating human rights condition and state of injustice following the use of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) which only legalizes the attacks against activists and critics of the government.
ATA was signed by the Duterte administration in 2021 despite criticisms of its vague and overbroad provisions. It was also the same administration that enacted Executive Order 70 or the ‘whole of nation approach’ in 2017 which conceived the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac). These actions according to rights groups only paved the weaponization of the law for massive illegal arrests, abductions, and even extra-judicial killings of human rights advocates and activists.
This year, NTF-Elcac sought a 31% or Php2.3 billion increase in their proposal of Php9.7 billion for the 2024 budget to fund its purported Barangay Development Program (BDP) next year with 864 barangays as target beneficiaries.
Similar to the retooled community support program (RCSP) under EO 70, BDP is said to provide and fund such “sustainable rehabilitation and development” projects for barangays declared as ‘insurgency-free’.
However, such implementations prompted human rights violations from harassment, surveillance, arrests or abductions and even fake surrenderees among individuals and activists similar to the case of Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro who are staunch environmental defenders abducted, threatened, and tagged as rebel surrenderees on September 2.
The NSC and Philippine National Police later revealed Tamano and Castro in public last September 15 until an NTF-Elcac press conference was held five days with the two exposing state-perpetrated attacks using AFP-PNP, and NTF-Elcac among others.
“The Marcos-Duterte administration is trying to save face especially if they themselves are not held accountable for their nefarious plans to initially allocate gargantuan confidential funds, especially to civilian agencies. We urge lawmakers to abolish confidential funds and instead allocate more to basic social services as there are massive budget cuts for SUCs and for DOH. Else, the Marcos-Duterte budget for 2024 will remain a budget for fascism and not for answering the people’s prayers for a better way of life,” Andres ended.
