MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III announced this Sunday, October 2 that if possible, the proposed P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the President ( OP).
This is what the Senator said in the DZBB interview that according to him, he is in favor of what President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said. that the food production problem in the country needs to be solved, and thus, a budget is also needed for this.
“Our general concern is that we should save money and even those extraneous expenses that we incur, we owe. The people are suffering, let’s put our money into expenses that directly answer the daily problems of the people, food,” said Pimentel.
“The focus of Marcos’ administration is agriculture, unlike the past administration, his focus is on law and order, which is still a drug problem. So he can justify that I need law enforcement and intel. Well, this is agriculture, let’s just pour it all out. And I agree that’s the correct focus, the food. Let’s just pour it not on intelligence expenses but on food,” he added.
Under the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the Office of the President has a proposed P9,031,722,000 budget for operations next year.
Of the aforementioned number, P2.25 billion will go to intelligence funds while P2.25 is planned for confidential expenses.
Based on the NEP, intelligence expenses are activities related to intelligence information gathering activities by uniformed and military personnel or intelligence practitioners that have a direct impact on national security.
Confidential expenses are activities related to investigation and surveillance.
Before this, remember what was said before
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles that the government is now aware of the reasons why the country’s food security is being affected. RNT/JGC
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