SCROOGE OF CONGRESS? JOKER ARROYO RETAINS TITLE
SCROOGE OF CONGRESS?
JOKER ARROYO RETAINS TITLE
MANILA, JANUARY
14, 2009
(STAR)
By Christina Mendez - For 17 straight years, Sen. Joker Arroyo
has remained the undisputed “Scrooge of Congress” for being the thriftiest, most
frugal, tight-fisted, penny-pinching lawmaker.
The officially published Itemized List of Expenses of each senator for 2007
as audited by Commission on Audit (COA) showed that Arroyo had the lowest
expenses for incumbent senators who served the full 12 months.
COA statistics showed that the senator incurred expenses of P12,293,084.06.
Only Sen. Manuel Villar came close, spending P12,442,323.98. Villar was
ousted last November following speculations that he may have used his previous
position as Senate President to pursue his presidential plans.
The COA report showed actors-turned-senators were the biggest spenders. Sen.
Bong Revilla was on top with P15,889,626.66 followed by President Pro-Tempore
Jinggoy Estrada with P15,449,229.69. Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan’s expenses
amounted to P15,271,305.21 while Sen. Lito Lapid spent P15,103,242.15.
Pangilinan is the only non show-biz personality among the top four biggest
spenders, although he is married to actress and mega star Sharon Cuneta.
When reached for comment by The STAR, Arroyo said he hopes to encourage his
colleagues to be frugal in spending the people’s money. “I sacrificed for that.
I deprived myself a few million pesos. I want to impress on my colleagues that
we should try to be thrifty,” he said.
However, the senator expressed surprise when he learned that the newcomers in
the Senate spent an average of P7 million for the first six months alone.
Seven senators who were elected in the May 2007 elections served only for six
months in 2007 and therefore, their expenses should have only been half that of
senators who served 12 months.
“Yet, their expenses are a revelation,” Arroyo said.
Records showed that it was detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who had spent
the most among the newcomers.
Trillanes is barred from attending session and cannot perform his duties as
senator because he is in a military stockade.
For six months from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2007, he spent P8,167,433.95, COA
records showed.
Analysis on that data showed that if you double that amount to simulate a
12-month service, the former Oakwood mutineer would be spending P16,334,867.90,
thereby making him the biggest spending legislator ever in the Senate.
The six other newly elected senators had a median expense from July 1 to Dec.
31, 2007 of P7,602,386.00 or the equivalent of P15,204,830.00 for a full year.
That places them in the high-spenders’ list.
In ascending order, their expenditures are: Sen. Noynoy Aquino,
P7,233,950.09; Juan Miguel Zubiri, P7,486,542.34; Alan Peter Cayetano,
P7,490,153.03; Loren Legarda, P7,511,829.43; Francis Escudero, P7,782,864.79;
and Gringo Honasan, P8,109,000.39.
Meanwhile, the mid-range spenders who spent P13.5 million to P15 million in
ascending order, from the lowest to the highest, were Senate minority leader
Aquilino Pimentel, Edgardo Angara, Mar Roxas, Pia Cayetano, Jamby Madrigal,
Panfilo Lacson, Richard Gordon, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Rodolfo Biazon, and
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Records revealed that Pimentel spent P13,452,506.50; Angara, P13,579,151.74;
Roxas, P13,810,176.81; Pia Cayetano, P13,916,309.50; Madrigal, P14,305,778.16,
Lacson, P14,456,161.38;
Gordon, P14,491,565.44; Santiago, P14,806,163.63; Biazon, P14,895,189.42 and
Enrile, P14,993,705.40.
Arroyo’s frugality with legislative monies started in the House of
Representatives where he had no staff, except for a driver and a utility man,
doing his work as congressman all by himself, including making his own phone
calls. He carried this work ethic to the Senate when he was elected in 2001 and
had a skeletal staff of three.
Arroyo is also proud of his perfect attendance record for 17 years. It’s like
not being absent from class even once from Grade 1 until you graduate from
college, he said.
Since Arroyo joined the government in 1986 as Executive Secretary up to the
present, he has never traveled on government money.
Arroyo chose not to chair any committee in the present 14th Congress although
he was offered two prize committees.
In the 12th and 13th Congresses, he chaired the Blue Ribbon Committee, the
Public Services Committee, and the Justice and Human Rights Committee and has
always prepared a committee report or at least a disposition report for every
referral to any committee he chairs.
Arroyo has no media officer, writes his own press statements, discusses only
issues he considers important and avoids subjects that he feels are inanities,
but occasionally drops by the media office after everyone has filed his story
and enjoys bantering with media.
Reporters who covered Arroyo in the legislative beats know that he writes his
own press releases by hand, and even faxes them to reporters. Arroyo keeps a
small phonebook where he writes the contact numbers of media and political
personalities.
Chief News Editor:
Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2009
by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved