DepEd: Legal for civilian offices to have a confidential fund

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday defended its proposed P150 million confidential fund for the fiscal year 2023, saying all civilian offices can have such a fund under the law.

The agency made the remark after Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Wednesday said that the P650 million total confidential funds for both the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd were essential to address the problems of the education sector.

Of the P650 million confidential funds—P500 million was sought by the OVP, while P150 was for the DepEd.

“Confidential expenses are allowed for all civilian offices, including the Department of Education. This has solid legal basis as provided under DBM Joint Circular 2015-01,” the DepEd said in a statement.

“The threats to the learning environment, safety, and security of DepEd personnel are interlocking with the mandate of support to the national security of civilian offices,” it added.

According to DBM Joint Circular 2015-01, confidential expenses refer to “those expenses pertaining/related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support the mandate or operations of the agency.”

During DepEd's presentation of its proposed budget for 2023, Duterte said that the success of the programs, activities, and projects of an agency “depends on very good intelligence [reports] and surveillance” to target specific issues and challenges.

She also said that “basic education is directly linked to the national security of our country.”

DepEd said that surveillance and intelligence gathering are needed to ensure that its projects are target-specific and would result in the broader protection of their personnel and students against sexual abuse and all other forms of violence, graft, and corruption; involvement in illegal drugs of learners and personnel; recruitment to insurgency, terrorism, and violent extremism; child labor; child pornography; and recruitment to criminal activities, gangsterism, and financial and other scams.

However, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-National Capital Region Union argued that a multi-million confidential fund could be better used to buy armchairs, textbooks, and laptops for teachers.

“Instead of spending such a huge amount on ‘dubious activities,’ the agency would be better served using the money to purchase 150,000 armchairs, 3 million textbooks, or 4,286 laptops for teachers at P35,000 apiece,” they said in a statement on Sunday.

It could be recalled that OVP spokesperson Atty. Reynold Munsayac had justified the OVP's P500 million in confidential expenses for next year, saying that this would be used for their projects to maintain peace and order and national security.

The 2022 national budget did not allocate confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education. — DVM, GMA News