ADVERTISEMENTThe P500-million confidential fund sought by the OVP would account for 21 percent of its proposed 2024 budget of P2.374 billion, which is 1 percent higher than its budget of P2.343 billion for 2023. It is more than the P471.29 million in confidential funds that the Department of Justice is asking for next year. Last year, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman called for a “purge” of “unnecessary and excessive” confidential and intelligence funds in the P5.268-trillion budget for 2023. Lagman singled out the OVP’s P500 million and DepEd’s P150-million confidential funds. Once approved by Congress and enacted by the President, it would be known as the General Appropriations Act, or the national budget.
