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MANILA, Philippines – Calling it “a bit too much,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said Friday that he intends to look at the intelligence funds allocated in the proposed 2021 Office of the President budget.
Lacson said he wants to know how the Office of the President spent its intelligence funds in previous years.
“We want to find out, and I intend to ask this question myself when the budget for the Office of the President is under discussion. ‘Pag sinabi mong P4.5 billion a year under one agency, which is the Office of the President, which is not a big office, how do they spend that? Yun ang tanong, ”he said in an interview on the ABS-CBN news channel.
Under the proposed national budget of P4.5 trillion for 2021, Lacson said that the intelligence funds allocated under the Office of the President “are a little lower” than the P4.5 billion given to him this year.
But it is still too much. I think it started with P700 plus a million. I no longer remember which administration, ”he said.
“And then it skyrocketed to something like P2 billion, P2.5 billion and now it’s over P4 billion just for the Office of the President,” he added, noting that the President also has access to intelligence funds from other agencies. in the Executive Department.
The Executive Director can control the release of intelligence funds under the Department of National Defense, the Philippine National Police, the National Security Agency, the Customs Office and the Office of Internal Revenue, according to Lacson.
“The president has control over other intelligence funds of the entire bureaucracy. Kung gusto niyang i-control yung release you can control, ”he said.
In addition, Lacson noted that the Office of the President also receives remittances from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Philippine Games and Amusement Corporation, amounting to “billions of pesos a year.”
Under the proposed spending plan for next year, the President’s Office has requested P8.23 billion for next year, less than the P8.25 billion for 2020.
Of this figure, P2.25 billion will go to confidential funds, while another P2.25 billion will go to intelligence funds.
/ MUF
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