Labella defends P30M intelligence funds, Dizon opposes
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella | PIO Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella defended the allocation of P30 million intelligence funds in the proposed 2021 annual budget.
The mayor said that the Office of the Mayor’s intelligence funds should not be more than 30 percent of the Peace and Order Programs budget.
The city’s allocation of the Peace and Order Programs for 2021 reached P200 million because the mayor wanted to provide as much support as the city can give to the police force.
The 30 percent of P200 million is P60 million, yet the mayor is asking only P30 million for the intelligence funds as a way to augment the needs of the law enforcement agencies when necessary.
Yet for opposition Councilor Alvin Dizon, the P30 million for an account that cannot be reviewed by the public and will be difficult to audit by the Commission on Audit is unreasonable.
“The Office of the Mayor always gets a share of the pie when it comes to confidential funds in the annual city budget. But allocating P30M funds for confidential expenses amidst a pandemic is both immoral and unjustifiable,” said Dizon.
Dizon noted that the proposed P30 million confidential funds for 2021 are even higher than the previous budget of P1 million in 2020.
“By their very nature, the use of confidential and intelligence funds are difficult to audit, according to the Commission on Audit (COA). I urge Mayor Labella to reduce or abandon the P30 million allocations for confidential expenses in the interest of good governance.”
“I appeal to the city council to cancel these unnecessary budgetary items under the 2021 budget. We need to prioritize the use of people’s tax money on more essential programs and projects geared at addressing the pandemic,” said the councilor.
Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, the chairperson of the budget and finance committee, said that the budget will be finalized before it will be approved by the council in the next regular session.
The recommendations of the other councilors will be considered in the final proposed 2021 budget, Garcia said. /rcg
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