How much do we pay the 11 Cebu representatives?

An average of P15.5 million a year for each member of Congress, or P46.5 million for the three-year term. Excluding pork barrel, if any. This is why many want to be congressmen. The question begging to be asked is: What have our representatives done to deserve all that? I urge all honorable members from Cebu to submit and publish their itemized accomplishments before the May mid-term elections, so voters will have some basis if their acts have created value for their constituents. If they call themselves public servants, they owe their masters a report on what they have done and failed to do. The people deserve to know whether the billions congressmen were paid was money well spent.

The Philippine STAR published five days ago the itemized list of amounts paid to and expenses incurred for and by each member of the House of Representatives from January 1 to December 31, 2017. The overall total for all the members of the House was an astounding P4,892,388,671.79 or 4.8 billion. My staff and I only focused on 11 members of the House from Cebu, all honorable men and women, from first to seventh, namely: Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr., Wilfredo Caminero, Gwendolyn Garcia, Benhur Salimbangon, Ramon Durano VI, Jonas Cortes, and from Cebu City, Raul del Mar, Rodrigo Abellanosa, as well as Aileen Radaza of Lapu-Lapu City. We also include Raymund Democrito Mendoza of the TUCP partylist because he is from Cebu.

The figures submitted and verified by Jose Dennis Isip shows that each one of them received a basic annual salary of P2,032,284, and a representation allowance of P824,0140, plus local travel allowance of P828,216, and communication expenses of P180,000 and public affairs fund of P1,776,000. Each was allowed to hire consultants (what have they achieved?) for a total of P2,471,760 for every congressman, and a budget for Central Office staff for an average of P4,269,733. They are also granted a whopping P3,470,000 each for “other MOOE”, plus office equipment of varying amounts, which roughly averaged at P65,876.85.

The auditor certified that the above-named representatives were respectively paid each as follows: Durano, P17,147,624.99 which includes allowances in his work in the education committee (I wonder what education laws he has passed); Gullas, P16,318,709.50;  Garcia, P16,007,906.30 including expenses for foreign travels; Del Mar, P16,111,114.07 including committee allowances; Abellanosa, P16,035,255.25 including committee work on small business entrepreneurship (what has he done there?); Caminero, P16,009,106.80 with some committee allowances; Calderon, P15,724,806.40; Cortes, P15,665,229.40; Mendoza, P15,629,261.31, including labor committee and poverty alleviation allowances, plus foreign travel; Salimbangon, P15,615,77.40; and Radaza, P14,756,725, which also includes allowances in her work in the oversight for overseas contract workers (has she done something for OFWs?)

It is the right of Cebuanos, and every Filipino, to know because they are national officials paid from national funds. I urge these congressmen, in the name of accountability and transparency, to show that they worked enough to deserve all they received.