THERE is a need for an independent investigation on the intelligence and confidential funds allocated for all government agencies. It may start from the revelations of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) undersecretary Eliseo Rio who resigned from his post on Feb. 3 over alleged anomalies on the use of the department’s confidential funds.
Is the administration so desperate in further militarizing the civilian bureaucracy that it has allocated millions of confidential funds for intelligence and surveillance even for agencies such as the DICT? The government is opening backdoors for corruption and the embezzlement of taxpayers’ money rather than properly allocating these funds for basic social services.
Rio resigned from his post citing anomalies in the disbursement of the DICT’s funds for “confidential, intelligence and extraordinary expenses” which he warned were not subject to regular audit. Under the 2019 national budget, P400 million worth of confidential and intelligence funds have been allocated to the DICT. Rio said cash advances from these funds amounting to P300 million have been released to DICT secretary Gringo Honasan toward the end of 2019, without the required notice of cash allotment from the Department of Budget and Management.
Legitimate questions raised by the Commission on Audit deserve to be answered, as a top department official has already resigned over such anomalies. Where did this P300 million actually go?
On top of the President’s own confidential and intelligence funds worth P4.5 billion, the confidential funds of the DICT doubled to P803 million under this year’s national budget. If Rio says the DICT has no use for such funds since intelligence and surveillance work are outside the scope of the department’s mandate, then how come the DICT is receiving millions of pesos for activities that are outside the scope of its mandate in the first place?
Why is the government funneling millions for the DICT to conduct intelligence and surveillance work? Is the government propping up the DITC to weaponize the country’s telecommunications system as part of the whole-of-nation approach of the counterinsurgency program by having the DICT conduct draconian and illicit intelligence and surveillance against activists, critics, and dissenters?
Rio’s revelation brings to light that millions and billions of the so-called confidential and intelligence funds are possibly being misused in widespread malversation. An investigation is thus warranted.
