House sets aside P3.1B for salaries of officials, staff

Under the P4.5-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2021 that President Duterte is expected to sign on Dec. 28, the House of Representatives will get more than P18.2 billion, P3.178 billion of which was allotted for the salaries of congressmen and House employees.

According to data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the House had 3,963 permanent positions in 2020, but only 3,680 were filled.

The allocations for permanent positions include P1.437 billion for the salaries of the House Speaker, 286 congressmen, various directors, chief political officers and legislative staff supervisors, or 692 key positions.

Aside from key positions, there are also administrative, support and technical staff, numbering 3,271, with an allocation of P1.529 billion.

Congressmen enjoy Salary Grade 31, which pays around P262,965 a month under the 2020 salary standardization law. The House Speaker is at Salary Grade 31, which commands a P313,512 monthly pay.

For 2021, the DBM staffing summary for the lower chamber showed that the key permanent positions grew to 700 with a P1.505-billion allotment, while other support positions rose to 3,337 with a P1.678-billion allocation.

This may be good news to some workers as 3.8 million Filipinos look for jobs to replace the ones they lost because of the coronavirus crisis.

“Unfortunately, adding [32] deputy speakers means that the budget of the House is not used wisely, since deputy speakers’ positions have been used to reward and entice members to support [Speaker Lord Allan Velasco]. That is how the game is played,” said political scientist Jean Franco of the University of the Philippines.

Franco noted that apart from the regular office budget for a congressman, the deputy speaker also has a separate budget for hiring at least six staff members, travel perks and allowances.

But Franco said Velasco’s actions were understandable since the 42-year-old congressman, the youngest lawmaker elected to the post, was “still trying to feel his way in the chamber,” two months after winning an acrimonious power struggle.

Need for caution

“He is aware that his leadership was a result of a huge power struggle and for this reason, he wants to be cautious in his first few months,” Franco said.

Franco noted that Velasco showed himself “cool under fire” during his political battle with his predecessor, Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, and reluctant to jump into divisive controversies.

But his critics have also pounced on his reserved nature and criticized his silence on the passage of the antiterrorism law and the rejection of ABS-CBN’s legislative franchise.

He has also been noticeably silent on senators’ persistent criticism of infrastructure allocations in the 2021 national budget, allegations of corruption against some congressmen and the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen.

“He cannot be silent for a long time. The Speaker needs to eventually speak up and defend members because he occupies a position that lends itself to wider media mileage and clout compared to ordinary House members,” Franco said.

A leader’s voice

“If he continues to be silent, he will run the risk of earning the ire of some members who may lose confidence in his leadership. He needs them to shepherd legislation needed by the Duterte administration,” Franco pointed out.

But Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, the House majority leader, assured that the taxpayer money used by the chamber was worth it.

“We assure the public that their representatives are doing their best to provide them with quality legislation and timely service and that no resource is wasted,” Romualdez said.

He said the House had processed a total of 2,598 measures during 74 session days amid the coronavirus pandemic, or an average of 35 measures processed per session day.

Under the leadership of Velasco, Romualdez said the chamber processed 688 measures, or an average of 115 per session from Oct. 12 to Dec. 16.

Romualdez said Velasco’s leadership led to the passage of key legislation like the P4.5-trillion national budget, the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the coco levy trust fund bill.

Also passed on final reading are House Bill No. 6656, which would extend the availability of the 2020 appropriations until Dec. 31, 2021, and HB 8063, which extends the availability of Bayanihan 2 funds under Republic Act No. 11494 until June 30, 2021.