Gov’t pays film buffs better than scientists, surgeons, UP president

Malacañang is handing out higher financial incentives to film directors than to the government’s leading scientists, surgeons and state educators, according to the annual reports on government salaries.

Take the top three officials of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, an agency under the Office of the President.

According to the Commission on Audit, film council chairman Briccio Santos in 2013 received over P2.4 million in compensation, while his two executive directors, Teodoro Granados and Jose Miguel dela Rosa, were paid P1.8 million and P1.7 million, respectively.

The three film officers enjoy higher salary grades than the country’s leading educators like the president of the University of the Philippines, Alfredo Pascual (P1.4 million), and the president of the Development Academy of the Philippines, Antonio Kalaw Jr. (also P1.4 million).

An award-winning indie film maker, Santos as well outranked the country’s leading scientists like director Alumanda dela Rosa of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (P1.6 million), executive director Rowena Cristina Guevarra of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (P1.4 million), executive director Jaime Montoya of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (P1.5 million), and executive director Patricio Faylon of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (P1.8 million).

The wide pay gap extends even to the chief medical officers of the country’s leading specialist hospitals.

The executive director of the soon-to-be-evicted Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Julius Lecciones, only received P1.4 million in pre-tax compensation last year, as did his counterparts over at the Philippine Heart Center, Manuel Chua Chiaco, and at Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, Ruben Flores.

Even during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, the film council already enjoyed higher salary grades than the country’s top medical specialists and scientists.

The 2009 film council chairman, GMA-appointee Rolando Atienza, received P1.4 million a year, nearly twice as high the P774K compensation received the same year by the director of the Philippine Heart Center, Ludgerio Torres, or the P831K salary of the then executive director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, now Health Secretary Enrique Ona.

To misquote actor Bill Murray: “Whenever I think of the high salaries we are paid as film actors (and directors), I think it is for the travel, the time away, and any trouble you get into through being well known. It’s not for the acting (and directing), that’s for sure.”