Gov’t building ‘Yellow cyber army’ with annual ‘black budget’ — solon

From the Daily Tribune (Sep 8): Gov’t building ‘Yellow cyber army’ with annual ‘black budget’ — solon

Has the Philippine government joined a growing number of nations that employ bankrolled “cyber armies” to influence opinion on the Internet?

Most probably, Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon said yesterday.

“Many social media experts have repeatedly pointed out how the Aquino administration has systematically deployed cyber armies — aka Internet trolls — to sway public opinion online, especially in times of political crisis,” Ridon said.

The legislator noted that the Aquino administration is seemingly riding the trend started by nations like Russia, Britain and China —nations that allegedly employ thousands to create troll accounts to post comments, make memes, and participate in online forums to sway public opinion.

“The worse part? Taxpayers may be bankrolling these trolls — via the P1.4 billion average annual ‘black budget’ or the part of the national budget allotted for classified and secret operations.

“In the US Congress, the ‘black budget’ — an appropriation that is confidential in nature and is used for intelligence gathering, covert operations, and secret military research — is always hotly debated come budget season. In the Philippines, we also have a black budget, which amounts to an average of P1.4 billion annually,” Ridon said.

“It’s called a black budget because even legislators are left in the dark about the real purpose of the said funds,” Ridon explained.

The Philippine black budget has two components: confidential and intelligence funds.

According to Ridon, Confidential funds are funds for surveillance activities in civilian departments and agencies.

Not all agencies are provided with confidential funds, as during budget preparation, the Executive Department exercises its discretion on which departments will be given funds for confidential expenses. To tighten the secrecy in the use of said funds, all disbursements or releases from this fund should have the immediate approval of the department secretary concerned. The government has an average P724 million in confidential funds annually.

The Intelligence funds — on the other hand, Ridon said, are funds for “intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed personnel and intelligence practitioners that have direct impact to national security.” Like confidential funds, intelligence funds are given to agencies during the budget preparation process subject to the discretion of the Chief Executive.

Apart from that, intelligence funds can only be released upon approval of no less than the president himself. Details of the expenditures are kept secret, and all reports of the utilization of intelligence funds are submitted directly to the president. The government has an average P690 million in intelligence funds annually.

Data from the Department of Budget and Management show that the Aquino administration used P8.8 billion total black budget since 2010.

While the said amounts are dispersed in several agencies including the Department of National Defense, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Justice, the Office of the President gets the lion’s share of the black budget, with 30 percent or P2.7 billion out of the P8.8 billion black budget in the past six years going directly to the president’s office alone (excluding attached agencies).

The national government is again asking for a P1.5 billion black budget next year, divided into P701 million in confidential funds and P833 million in intelligence funds.

“The secretive nature of these funds explicitly bars the public from scrutinizing how these funds are used. Even the Commission on Audit (CoA) only has a minute ministerial role in scrutinizing the use of such funds,” Ridon said.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/nation/gov-t-building-yellow-cyber-army-with-annual-black-budget-solon