Billionaire senators

The political air has suddenly become polluted, what with the Feb. 11 start of the 90-day campaign period for candidates for national positions. 

Sixty-five want to be one of the 12 senators. Each of the 65 has a 20 percent chance of winning. One in five. Not bad as odds. In jueteng, the chances of winning are 1/666 and up to 1/1,369. You win just a few thousand pesos. Running and winning for senator has odds of one in five. And you are 100 percent sure of raking in billions.

Separately, this May 12, there are 156 party-list parties seeking seats in Congress. Per the Constitution and the Supreme Court math, party-list parties are entitled to up to 20 percent of total House membership. But that’s another story. Or joke.

In this country, being a senator is a surest way to be a billionaire. Even if you did not go to school or went to school but learned exactly nothing, like our 15-year-olds. Or you are a Bar topnotcher and yet have not shown full intellectual potential.

A senator makes P3.5 million in basic salary, yearly. Multiply that by six, the number of years a senator serves: P3.5 million x six is P21 million. Plus, a senator gets to cobble P200 million a year in pork barrel. Multiply that by six (years), that’s P1.2 billion. Multiply that by two – the number of terms a senator is allowed, that’s P2.4 billion. 

After 12 years (the equivalent of two terms of a six-year senatorial term), the senator can rest for three years or run as a congressman in the meantime. Hey, the Constitution does not allow a person or a family or a clan to run or reign forever as senators. They need to rest, naman, please, says the Constitution. It’s called an anti-dynasty provision. Which has produced exactly the opposite effect. So one family ends up having three senators serving in the same year. Like the Tulfo brothers – Raffy, Erwin and Ben.

Having rested, the honorable senator can run again for senator for another two terms or another 12 years. So in 24 years, a senator would have made P4.8 billion from pork plus P42 million of regular salary – a total of P4.842 billion.

Of course senators, being just 24 in number, each can chair up to three Senate committees. Each chairmanship entitles the senator to P20 million (presumably for committee expenses, pay of consultants or technical assistants). Three times P20 million is P60 million; 60 times six (years) is P360 million; P360 million times two (terms, or 12 years) is P720 million. Rest for a while. And P720 million times two terms is P1.44 billion.

For instance, in the 2015 Senate, where Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. served as a senator, there were 39 permanent Senate committees and 33 Senate oversight committees, a total of 72, meaning three senators got four committees. 

What are the oversight committees? They just repeat the names of the regular committees, with slight variation in nomenclature, maybe for language elegance’s sake.  

There is a regular Senate committee on agriculture and food, chaired then, and now, by Cynthia Villar. And there is a Senate oversight committee on agricultural and fisheries modernization, also chaired by Cynthia.

 In 2015, there was a Senate committee on environment and natural resources chaired by senator, and now Senate President, Francis Escudero. And there was an oversight committee on the Chain Saw Act, also chaired by Chiz Escudero.                 

You need chain saws to cut trees efficiently. Of course. Trees are a part of the environment. Of course. When you oversee trees and chain saws, of course, the two functions must be met by two separate committees, and headed, of course, by one and the same learned guy, lawyer Chiz Escudero. Year 2015 was 10 years ago.  What happened to our trees? With or without chain saws. 

Per Wikipedia, 1.42 million hectares of forest tree cover was lost from 2001 to 2022, a 7.6 percent decrease – equivalent to 848 metric tons of carbon emissions. 

There are supposed to be 10,000 trees per hectare. So a loss of 1.42 million hectares of forest is equivalent to 14.2 billion trees lost or cut down. What happened to the trees?

For an explanation, today, it may be a good time to ask the chairpersons of the following Senate committees in 2015: climate change (Loren Legarda), environment and natural resources (Escudero), agriculture and food (Cynthia Villar), urban planning and housing (JV Ejercito), science and technology (now Finance Secretary Ralph Recto), oversight committee on agriculture and fisheries modernization (Cynthia Villar), oversight committee on ecological and solid waste management (Legarda), oversight committee on the Clean Air Act (Legarda), oversight committee on Clean Water Act (Escudero) and the oversight committee on the Chain Saw Act (Escudero).

Add the P1.44 billion from committee earnings to a senator’s P4.842 billion (from pork and regular salary for 24 years), and total revenue (from 24 years of honorable, unstinting public service) is – drum roll, please, P6.284 billion.

A senator who serves for 24 years makes P6.284 billion. The minimum age for a senator is 30. Barely 60, a senator already would have raked in P6.284 billion of earnings, our tax money. What do the people get in return for such insanely huge pay? 

Have any senators been made accountable for excessive wealth or wicked corruption or plain laziness? Nah.

But two presidents have been removed from office, for alleged graft. Two presidents had been under house or hospital arrest or both.

No wonder, when the House sent its Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte for a trial by the Senate, the senators hesitated.  Accountability has poor currency in the Senate. There is a Senate committee on accounts though.

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