SENATE President Paul A. Manglona assures Senate personnel that their salaries will not be affected by the recent decision of the administration to cut each lawmaker’s annual budget allocation.
“The cut in the Senate’s budget won’t affect personnel cost. We are sensitive to the needs of our employees. We won’t reduce salaries or cut working hours. We may have to cut on other areas such as operational expenditures but not on personnel cost,” said Manglona, R-Rota.
Based on the third and fourth quarter allotment accounts issued by the Office of Budget and Management, the budget allocation for each member of the Senate and the House of Representatives was reduced by 16.3 percent to $32,573 from $38,750 each quarter.
Manglona said the Senate will try to cope with the cut and will do as much as it can to implement the administration’s austerity measures and avoid deficit spending.
“The Senate must have a share of the burden. This is not the first time that our budget was cut. Three years ago we had similar cuts and when the revenue picked up a bit, they restored some portions of the cut,” he said.
He said it would be up to senators to do their own cost-cutting measures as “I can’t tell them how to operate their office.”
Aside from the 16.3 percent cut, the budget allocation is further reduced by the 27 percent retirement contribution that each lawmaker pays for his staff. The contribution was previously shouldered by the government through the Department of Finance. But Manglona said a portion of the contribution now comes from the annual budget allocation of each lawmaker.
Each senator, based on Manglona’s estimate, spends an average of $90,000 for personnel cost and some $24,000 for retirement contribution that all come from each lawmaker’s budget allocation.
The Senate president also reiterated his call for cooperation between the executive and the legislative branches of government.
“The news about the economy didn’t just get to us yesterday. We already know that the economy is going down. So there’s more reason for us to concentrate on working together—both houses with the administration on pushing for economic recovery legislation,” he said.
