Marcos vetoes defunding of police's IT program

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to reinstate the scrapped allocation for the Philippine National Police's information technology program. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the money to be returned would be used for the country's integrated 911 system. "As instructed by the president to our budget secretary, the budget for the [PNP] IT [program] will be reverted, and the additional P500 million intelligence fund placed in the GAA (General Appropriations Act) will be allocated to this. So, the [intelligence fund] will return to the original budget of P820 million instead of P1.3 billion," he said during a Palace briefing. "Savings from that will be put aside for the launching and bidding out process of the integrated 911 system for the whole Philippines. So, it will be from the intelligence fund to 911. It will be a fully audited system under scrutinous bidding,'' Remulla added. Marcos' veto states "that in cases of appropriations and new budgetary items introduced by the Congress in the budget shall be subject to the national government's cash programming, of service or prudent fiscal management, applicable budget execution rules and procedures and approval by the President based on the programs by priorities of the government."