How much do taxpayers pay for the senators' services?

The Philippine STAR published six days ago, in the interest of accountability and transparency, how much all the Filipino taxpayers had to shell out to fund the 24 senators, in the performance of their legislative and other functions. From the cost-benefit perspectives, the question that every concerned taxpayer should ask is this: Was the more than P1.8 billion well spent?

According to the Senate supervising auditor, Olympia P. Balugay, in her itemized list of expenses for each of the senators from January 1 to December 31, 2017, the grand total Senate expenses reached P1,862,612,237.28. This is P1.8 billion with a big B, but this is nothing compared to the House of Representatives' staggering total for the same period, which reached P4,892,388,671,79. That means that the Senate and the House cost the taxpayers a total of P6,755,000,909.07, or an astounding P6.7 billion. It is much, much more than the cost of the Supreme Court, the Office of the President, and the Office of the Vice President combined. We are paying too much for people who just speak too much and do too little.

This is only for one year. If you multiply the cost of the Senate by six years, that would be more than P10.8 billion pesos. The House would cost P4.9 multiplied by three years which is P14.7 billion or P29.4 billion in six years. Thus the taxpayers need to fund a combined cost of P40.2 billion for people who just filibuster and show off on national TV. The most expensive senators in 2017 were Koko Pimentel, P127,833,551.38, which may be justified because he was the Senate President with various ex-officio committee chairmanships. He is followed by Trillanes who spent no less than P86,985,595.66. The taxpayers paid P15,679,700 for Trillanes' consultants. What have they accomplished? For me, Trillanes is the least useful legislator.

The third most expensive senator was Manny Pacquiao who spent P86,440,440.79, followed by Bam Aquino spending P85,024505.25. The sixth most expensive was Ralph Recto, spending P84,417,368.60, and the seventh was Nancy Binay who spent more than P79 million. They are followed by Sonny Angara, P78 million; Leila de Lima, P78 million (was she already in detention when these expenses were incurred?); and JV Ejercito also spent more than P78 million. Cayetano was the least expensive with P49 million (maybe because he was appointed as DFA Secretary). The total salaries for the 24 senators was P34.3 million. Travel expenses reached P17.5 million for local and P17.4 million for foreign, while travel by their staff amounted to P65.4 million for local and P12.4 million for foreign travel. Oh, they traveled a lot. Be a senator and see the world.

Salaries for staff was P788.2 million and P194.7 million for consultants (why do they need too many consultants, do they need so much help to do their work?) Extraordinary miscellaneous expenses (what is this?) amounted to P193.7 million and other MOOE (please explain) P442.2 million. My God, our legislators are living as if the Philippines is one of the richest countries in the world. I now understand why too many characters want to be senators. Even Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, Enrile (again?). Can they live without burdening the people again?