Creative budgeting

People who feel overworked and underpaid, including teachers and health workers, should look at the fund allotments and expenditures of lawmakers for 2023—and weep.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Congressmen received a basic annual salary of P3,825,672. Divided by 12, that's P318,806 a month. Divided by 13 (if we include a 13th-month pay), it comes down to P294,282.46.

Their total 2023 individual allocation, courtesy of taxpayers, ranged from a low of P13.4 million (this was for Cavite Rep. Crispin Diego Remulla who took over the post only in February 2023) and a high of P32.6 million and P30.1 million, for the husband-and-wife tandem of Speaker Martin Romualdez and Tingog party-list's Yedda Marie, respectively.

On top of the basic pay, the congressmen spent millions for contractual consultants, "communication, representation, public affairs fund," "other MOOE," and from P42,000 to over P93,000 for "equipment, furniture & fixtures." For committee memberships and oversight, they received P240,000 per post.

Senators received similar amounts.

On top of the basic pay, senators were allotted millions in "extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses," not only for their offices but also for their committee memberships; "other MOE"—whatever the miscellaneous and others expenses stand for—plus travel funds for themselves and their staff and "capital outlays." In 2023, each senator cost taxpayers from P96,962,129.10 (Mark Villar) to P164,391,926.42 (former Senate president Migz Zubiri).

What did they do to deserve such massive amounts of people's money? These amounts are on top of their various forms of pork barrel and patronage funds—the "unprogrammed appropriations" in the national budget, for which they impounded P89.9 billion of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. funds this year.