DICT intel fund a backdoor for corruption, civil rights violations - Karapatan

Press Release
February 5, 2020

QUEZON CITY – Human rights group Karapatan called for an independent investigation of the intelligence and confidential funds allocated for all government agencies, as it slammed the allocation of such funds for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). The rights group made the statement following the revelations of DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio, who resigned from his post on Monday, February 3, over anomalies on the use of the department’s confidential funds.

“The Duterte administration is desperate in further militarizing the civilian bureaucracy by allocating millions of confidential funds for intelligence and surveillance, even for agencies such as the DICT. The government is merely opening backdoors for corruption and the embezzlement of taxpayers’ money rather than properly allocating these funds for basic social services,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

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. 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?” Palabay questioned.

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. Palabay asked further: “If Rio says that 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 government's counterinsurgency program by having the DICT conduct draconian and illicit intelligence and surveillance against activists, critics, and dissenters?”

In the 2019 national budget, at least P8.28 billion had been allocated for confidential and intelligence funds, almost half of which is with the Office of the President. The Karapatan official stated that “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 to fund the Duterte regime’s counterinsurgency program and to fatten his allies’ pockets. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict already has already been given a whopping P36.439 billion budget for this year. While the people suffer due to budget cuts on healthcare and disaster response, the Duterte administration is funneling billions of pesos to fund its all-out war on the people.”