MANILA, Philippines – Aurora and Nueva Ecija reported no confidential expenses for the second straight year, while the five other provinces in Central Luzon released funds labeled as such for 2022 and 2023.
Based on the 2023 Annual Audit Reports (AARs) submitted by the seven provinces in Region 3, Bulacan had the highest confidential expenditures in the region, followed by Bataan, and Zambales.
The breakdown is as follows:
- Bulacan: P200 million in 2022, P200 million in 2023
- Bataan: P56 million in 2022, P38 million in 2023
- Zambales: P36 million in 2022, P36 million in 2023
- Tarlac: P40 million in 2022; P18.8 million in 2023
- Pampanga: P11.25 million in 2022, P15 million in 2023
The AARs of Aurora and Nueva Ecija were made public in April; Pampanga’s AAR was uploaded on the Commission on Audit website in May; AARs of the rest of the provinces were only released in early December.
Based on the government’s joint circular from 2015, confidential expenses by local government units must be directly connected with their peace and order program.
Permissible spending include activities for crime prevention and law enforcement activities, capability development for personnel of law enforcement agencies and volunteers, programs related to illegal drugs, illegal gambling, counter insurgency, smuggling, human trafficking, and against illegal logging, mining, and fishing.
While Nueva Ecija and Aurora declared zero confidential spending, it had so-called extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses for 2023 totaling P1.05 million and P338,014, respectively.
EMEs are unrelated to security or peace and order initiatives, and cover costs not addressed by regular budget allocations, such as meetings, conferences, official entertainment, public relations, civic contributions, and the procurement of office equipment and supplies.
Meanwhile, two provinces from the region cracked the list of the 20 wealthiest provinces in terms of assets in 2023.
Pampanga ranked 10th with total assets of P20.778 billion, while Tarlac placed 16th with P17.047 billion.
Bulacan and Nueva Ecija, which were part of the top 20 in 2022, failed to make the cut in 2023. – Rappler.com