MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Just hours after the House of Representatives panel removed P1.23 billion in confidential and intelligence funds from the proposed P5.7-trillion budget for 2024, the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, both headed by Sara Duterte, got their CIF back — in full!

The panel reconsidered its earlier decision after Duterte re-submitted her proposed budget and renamed the CIF line item to “Counter Intelligence Fund.”

The panel members didn’t see it coming. They had earlier thought that it has been made crystal clear that they were unanimously against the intelligence fund.

But when Duterte “reclassified” the fund as “counter intelligence” the panel members had no choice but to approve the resubmitted budget.

“We have countered the confidential and intelligence funds,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Elizaldy Co said, “so by not approving the counter intelligence funds as resubmitted by the VP, we will be contradicting ourselves.”

Who would have thought that simple semantics could sway our lawmakers to approving one of the most controversial items in the 2024 national budget?