Photo Release

On transfer of contingent funds: Senate Deputy Minority Leader Sen. Risa Hontiveros calls for regulation on the disbursement of the contingent funds in the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for next year. During the resumption of the plenary debates on the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) Thursday, November 9, 2023, Hontiveros maintained that the executive branch must be prohibited from using the P13 billion in contingent funds next year to augment the confidential and intelligence funds of government agencies. "Such a move of big money...of course, must be governed by rules and procedures eventually," Hontiveros said in a mix of English and Filipino. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)