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.

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.

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A third of the income of salaried workers automatically goes to the state. On top of this, we pay value-added tax on all consumer goods and services, including VAT on toll for roads even within congested Metro Manila.

It’s amazing how, despite the massive appropriations for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the government can’t afford to build and maintain short stretches of much needed elevated roads so these can be used for free by the public and genuinely ease ground-level traffic.

Apart from road toll and VAT on consumer goods, people are burdened with excise taxes on certain commodities including a hefty 12 percent excise tax on fuel. We also pay a road user’s tax – where it goes, nobody knows – upon vehicle registration, and amusement tax in cinemas, supposedly for flood control.

The amounts reported in the Congress allotments and expenditures are just for 2023. We await the higher figures for 2024.

For election year 2025, lawmakers have awarded themselves P33.67 billion for the House of Representatives (up from the P16.3 billion in the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive) and P13.93 billion for the Senate (up from the P12.83 billion in the NEP).

Also shamelessly increased was the allotment for their new pork barrel – the unprogrammed appropriations – from the original P158.665 billion in the NEP to a whopping P531.66 billion, or an increase of P373 billion. That amount could have built all segments of the Skyway and made it toll-free.

The Constitution allows Congress to cut but prohibits increasing appropriations proposed by the executive in the NEP.

Another provision in the Constitution requires that the largest slice of the annual budget pie should go to education. But for 2025, the bicameral conference, where all the creative budgeting takes place, increased the DPWH allocation to a whopping P1.1 trillion – higher than the budget for the Department of Education, which saw a P12-billion cut in its funding, and higher than the budget for the entire education sector.

The DPWH allocation is a source of corruption-tainted projects earmarked by politicians, particularly for flood control and road repairs.

If President Marcos signs the national budget happily approved by the “pork”-hungry Congress, he could be liable for culpable violation of the Constitution, which is an impeachable offense.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara, bless his soul, raised a howl of protest that reached Malacañang, prompting a deferment of the signing of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

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Yesterday, Malacañang said the proposed GAA was undergoing a “thorough” review by President Marcos and his officials to ensure that whatever he signs into law on Dec. 30 will hew to the Constitution.

That was an indirect admission that the GAA as approved by the bicam is constitutionally infirm.

Apart from the congressional pork, lawmakers also insist on taking personal credit for the ayuda programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

DSWD officials can shout themselves hoarse that politicians have no say in their cash aid programs. But unless DSWD personnel literally kick out politicians during distribution of Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations and Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita, every AICS and AKAP event will feature politicians on stage – from senator down to barangay captain – with their massive streamers claiming credit for the tax-funded dole-outs.

Politicians can’t even spare people from their faces during Christmas. In my neck of the woods, massive images of the political dynasty – some bearing individual photos, others the entire family – are plastered at strategic spots, greeting people a merry Christmas.

Shouldn’t they pay environmental degradation fines, or at least stiff advertising fees to the government, for polluting public space with their faces? Their nauseating posters are like the Grinch that stole Christmas, reminding us of the abuse of power especially by entrenched dynasties.

More nauseating, of course, is the brazen way they are appropriating public funds for personal use.

We are notorious for our short attention span and ningas cogon or flash-in-the-pan outrage. Let’s hope the outrage over profligate spending of our taxes will be sustained, and will be reflected in the elections in 2025 and all the way to 2028.