Palace: GOCC execs’ allowances trimmed down to P3 M

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang defended yesterday the perceived fat and excessive bonuses and allowances of President Aquino’s appointees to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), saying these have been trimmed down from P13.5 million to P3 million a year.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda compared the emoluments received by officials appointed by the previous administration in GOCCs, where some got a whopping P13.5 million – or more than P1 million monthly – in per diems and allowances in a given year.

“The highest that you can get (now) is P3 million,” he told Palace reporters, noting that the amount is the maximum incentive a GOCC director can get if his total compensation is combined.

Such amount has been an open book since President Aquino assumed office and can be gleaned from the government portal gcg.gov.ph or the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) website where the cap on officials’ allowances is posted online.

“In terms of compensation, you can see their performance-based incentive and their per diems. You can all see that in the websites of each and every GOCC, the GCG has mandated that all their performance-based incentives, their per diems, should be posted,” he said.

“That’s why it’s no secret to the public – the bonuses, incentives; you have basis to say how much each director received,” Lacierda stressed, highlighting the transparency by which the new system is done.

Before or during the nine-year Arroyo administration, GOCC executives racked up “somewhere from P1.8 million up to P13.5 million for a director per year,” he said. “This has been the case in the state pension fund Social Security System.”

“Under this administration, under the GCG Law, and as set out by the standards or the scorecard provided by the GCG, the highest that a director can get, summing up the per diem attendance and the performance-based incentive, is only P3-million,” Lacierda said.