Trillanes, Pimentel, Alan Cayetano are Senate’s top spenders in 2014

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV spent the most in the Senate for 2014, a recent Commission on Audit (COA) report revealed.

In a report that the COA published on Sunday as a paid advertisement in a national daily, the commission said Trillanes' office incurred a total of P86 million expenditures from January 1 to December 31, 2014.

The second top spender, according to the report, was Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel with P76.912 million expenditures followed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano who incurred P76.167 million expenditures.

The report itemized the expenses of each of the 24 senators as follows:

• Senator's travel – local and foreign
• Staff travel – local and foreign
• Salaries and benefits of staff
• Meetings and conferences
• Professional consultancy fee
• Supplies and materials
• Rental of office space/equipment
• Extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses
• Other maitenance and operating expenses (MOE)
• Capital outlay

Based on the report, Trillanes spent a total of P927,938.67 for local travels and P460,645.89 for foreign travels.

Trillanes was also the senator who had paid the highest salaries and benefits to his staff with a total of P41.592 million for the two committees that he handled in 2014.

Sought for a reaction, Trillanes said that there was nothing illegal with his expenditures and that the figures only showed that he maximized the funds allocated to his office.

“The COA report didn't mention any anomaly. It only showed that I hired the most number of employees," Trillanes said.

"There's nothing illegal about that since my office is also the most productive in terms of number of principally authored and sponsored national bills passed into law,” he added.

“What is anomalous are those who didn't pass any law at all despite the budget they spent for their respective offices,” Trillanes added.

Pimentel refused to give a statement at the moment saying, “I've asked my finance officers to double check the figure first”.

GMA News Online also sought a reaction from Cayetano but he has yet to respond as of posting time.

Meanwhile, the report showed that Senators Teofisto “TG” Guingona III (P44.58 million) Sergio Osmeña III (P44.863 millin) and Francis Escudero (P51.224 million) spent the least from their budget allocation in 2014.

Below are the 2014 expenditures of the other senators audited by COA:

• Ralph Recto – P73.894 million
• Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara – P73.309 million
• Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito – P72.723 million
• Lito Lapid – P72.693 million
• Vicente “Tito” Sotto III – P69.731 million
• Loren Legarda – P68.967 million
• Franklin Drilon – P68.804 million
• Bongbong Marcos – P68.771 million
• Cynthia Villar – P68.227 million
• Juan Ponce Enrile – P68.126 million
• Jinggoy Estrada – P67.480 million
• Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino – P67.399 million
• Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. - P67 million
• Gringo Honasan – P65.733 million
• Grace Poe – P64.297 million
• Pia Cayetano – P60.729 million
• Miriam Defensor-Santiago – P56.101 million
• Nancy Binay – P53.490 million

The COA report showed that the Senate incurred a total expenditures of P1.587 billion in 2014 which included “extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses” amounting P186.920 million and professional and consultancy fee amounting P225.144 million.

House of Representatives

Meanwhile, the COA also itemized in its report the expenditures of the all the 290 members of the House of Representatives.

Based on the report, the House of Representatives incurred a total expenditures of P3.406 billion, slightly higher than its total expenditures of P3.07 billion in 2013.

Among the payments made to lawmakers included basic salary and foreign travels, while the expenses they incurred included payments for their district field staff, contractual consultants, central office staff, supplies, office rental/repairs and maintenance, among others.

The COA said the figures for the House of Representatives was based on the records of the chamber including the reports of the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the regular and special committess as well as the reports of the oversight committee. —NB, GMA News