No confidential spending in DICT in 2021 after controversy — Honasan

FILE. DICT Sec. Gringo Honasan

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will stop confidential spending in 2021 after questions emerged over its use, DICT secretary Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II said on Tuesday.

This was revealed during the DICT’s budget deliberations, where Honasan also said some P800 million previously earmarked for confidential spending this year was withdrawn.

He said the department managed to deploy P400 million in confidential expenses allocated in 2019.

“We asked for P800 million but it was taken back,” Honasan said when asked by Sen. Imee Marcos on their confidential spending in 2020. “We no longer attempted to request [for 2021].”

The DICT’s confidential spending became controversial after it was flagged at the start of the year by Eliseo Rio Jr. while he was undersecretary at the department.

Rio, a former brigadier general familiar with surveillance processes, cited the lack of transparency on how the money, which does not go through the normal government audit process, was spent. He also worried it could be used for spying—a function beyond the mandate of the DICT.

This was further confirmed by Commission on Audit documents seen by the Inquirer showing irregularities in the manner and timing by which the 2019 transactions were processed.

The DICT later said the money was used for the “lawful monitoring and surveillance of systems and network infrastructure” and not on individuals.

The circumstances surrounding the DICT’s use of confidential funds was the main reason Rio filed his resignation last January.

The resignation was only acted upon by President Duterte after several months on May 22 while Rio was working to bring more digital contact tracing providers to supplement the government’s fight against COVID-19.

During the deliberations on Tuesday, Honasan said they needed more funding for cybersecurity, citing unnamed “foreign entities” seeking to infiltrate the country’s systems especially in the transportation and energy sectors.

“We still don’t know why they are trying to enter and some of them claim to be our friends,” Honasan said.

“With friends like them, who needs enemies?” he added.

Honasan did not provide details on how they spent their P400 million confidential budget in 2019. But he complained the figure was “not even enough to buy the software and hardware that will be obsolete by tomorrow.”

He further expressed regret at the lack of funding for cybersecurity.

“We have been relegated to reactive mode. We’re still not in proactive [mode],” he said.

But when Honasan was asked about the entry of new telecommunications players such as DITO Telecommunity, a company backed by China Telecom and Davao-based business Dennis A. Uy, he quickly deferred to other agencies.

“There’s a cybersecurity plan. They cannot just enter. I think we should trust our defense or security sectors to exercise due diligence in making sure these are secure,” Honasan said.

The DICT is seeking P46 billion for its 2021 budget, most of which will go to the government’s first ever national broadband program and free wifi project across the Philippines.

Honasan said on Tuesday they were appealing for an increase as the money earmarked for the department amounted to P4 billion next year.

“We would like to appeal for any incremental increase to our budget so we can pursue our main programs,” Honasan said.

EDV