MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago gave officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), led by Secretary Albert del Rosario, a grade of 1.0 during the plenary debates on the DFA’s 2013 budget the other day.
Santiago, International Criminal Court judge-in-waiting, is an international law expert and former chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations.
Before giving her endorsement of the DFA’s budget and even recommending its augmentation, Santiago noted that she views the department as the best performing among all departments in government.
“It has issued statements that are sober and grounded on law and well-received by the international community in the various foreign policy crises in which our country has been involved,” Santiago said.
The senator said the foreign affairs secretary should be the role model of all Cabinet members of the Aquino government.
As the highest paid Cabinet official and supposedly the wealthiest too, Del Rosario reportedly gave away his salary last year to DFA employees.
“I find that the Secretary has notched up a commendable record of performance because number one, he is very, very rich, he is a billionaire. He has just finished redistributing his salary among all his employees,” Santiago said.
“If only all the members of the Cabinet were like that. We should look for these billionaires, who instead of stealing, even donate their salaries,” she added.
During his stint in the private sector as the top executive of several major corporations here and abroad, Del Rosario managed to accumulate a significant amount of assets, making him the richest among the Cabinet members with a net worth of P657.8 million in 2011.
“We should have an aristocracy of wealth in government so that honest people who are also billionaires can just redistribute their money but still bust their assets in working out of sheer civic spirit,” Santiago said.
“I cannot, for example, imagine myself working for nothing, possibly because I’m not rich and have to set aside money,” she added.
Under the leadership of Del Rosario, Santiago said the DFA has shown that it is capable of being provocative in the conduct of the country’s foreign affairs while taking a balanced view on critical issues involving the country.
“I find the equilibrium has been maintained in a very balanced and statesmanlike way. I like the craft of statesmanship that is being practiced in the DFA. So I fully support the budget of the DFA,” Santiago said.
The DFA will receive P11.613 billion under the proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013.
‘Cabinet officials’ pay not bloated’
Meanwhile, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said yesterday that the Cabinet secretaries of President Aquino do not receive bloated salaries, contrary to the Commission on Audit (COA) report.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the figures highlighted in the COA report include agency or work-related expenses.
The COA said in a September 2012 audit report that Cabinet secretaries received bloated salaries and perks in 2011.
“In the COA report, the final computation of our yearly pay actually includes large items that are not part of our take-home wages. Our salaries look high on paper, but a good chunk of the total figure is actually for agency or work-related expenses, which require exhaustive liquidation reports and a lot of accountability from our end,” Abad said.
He explained that Cabinet secretaries receive a net pay of P77,000 a month under the Salary Standardization Law.
However, he said the annual figures cited in the COA report also accounted for Cabinet secretaries’ Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses (EMEs) amounting to P220,000 and P72,000 a year, respectively, which are not considered as compensation for Cabinet officials.
These so-called EMEs are strictly designated for official or work-related items that may include annual subscriptions to key journals and publications and other items allowed under the General Appropriations Act.– With Iris Gonzales