Joker Arroyo still most frugal

MANILA, Philippines - The 23 members of the Philippine Senate incurred over P300-million in expenses in 2008, according to records from the Commission on Audit (COA).

Sen. Gregorio 'Gringo' Honasan, a military rebel-turned-politician, emerged as the biggest spender among the 23 lawmakers.

In 2008, Honasan’s expenses reached P17.9 million. In 2007, when he returned to the Senate, his expenses from July-December 2007 amounted to P8.109 million.

The bulk of Honasan’s expenses from January-December 31, 2008 covered the salaries of his staff, which reached P9.6 million. The rest of the money were spent on travel, meetings, supplies and materials.

Top 10 spenders

Senate President Pro-tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada remained the second-biggest spender with P17.52 million.

The biggest spender for 2007, Sen. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla, dropped to third place, with his office's expenses reaching P17.48 million.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes, who is still in detention for staging a failed mutiny in Oakwood in 2003 and forcing a standoff in the Peninsula Manila Peninsula Hotel in November 2007, ranked fourth, with P17.2 million.

In 2007, he had the biggest expenses among the new senators with P8.167 million.

The rest of the top 10 biggest spenders in the Senate are:

5th – Sen. Francis Pangilinan –  P17. 224 million

6th – Sen. Benigno Aquino III – P16.79 million

7th – Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile – P16. 29 million

8th – Sen. Rodolfo Biazon – P16.02 million

9th – Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano – P16 million

10th – Sen. Pia Cayetano – P15.92 million

Sen. Joker Arroyo remained the lowest-spending senator with his expenses amounting to P12.64 million. He has been the most frugal senator ever since he became a member of the upper house.

The list of expenses was issued by Atty. Emilio Asiur, resident auditor at the Senate.

More money spent

The senators had bigger expenses this year, with the top 10 spenders alone incurring expenses over P170 million.

In 2007, the expenses of Revilla and the other big spenders reached around P140 million.

The year 2008 was the first year where the expenses of all 23 senators were calculated for the whole 12 months.

Aside from Honasan, two other newly-elected senators in 2007 in the list of top 10 biggest spenders in 2008 were Aquino (expenses from July-December 2007 reached P7.233 million), and Alan Peter Cayetano (expenses from July-December 2007 totaled P7.490 million).

A big part of the expenses went to the compensation of their staff and to other maintenance and operating expenses, which, according to a 2002 report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, is a mix of expenses for advertising and compensation received by legislators for heading committees.