Vice President Sara received P300K, President Marcos zero for Cabinet posts

by elizabeth Marcelo Philstar.com

mANILA — Vice President sara Duterte was paid a total of P300,000 last year as the secretary of the Department of education (Deped), while President marcos received zero pay as concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture, a Commission on Audit (CoA) report showed.

Based on the CoA’s “2022 report on salaries and Allowances” or rosA uploaded on its website last thursday, August 3, Duterte received P168,000 in allowances and P132,000 in discretionary and extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses (eme) for a net pay of P300,000. this was for her six months as Deped secretary from June 30 to Dec. 31, 2022.

Included in the rosA as the secretary of agriculture, marcos did not receive any salary, allowances or other pay for the post which he has been occupying since assuming the presidency on June 30, 2022, CoA’s breakdown showed.

Duterte’s take-home pay as education secretary, meanwhile, appeared to be the lowest compared to the amounts received by other members of marcos’ Cabinet. the 2022 rosA showed that finance secretary Benjamin Diokno got the heftiest paycheck among marcos’ Cabinet members – a net pay of P28.781 million.

Diokno’s net pay included

P6 million in basic salary as the governor of the Bangko sentral ng Pilipinas for six months from January to June 2022, prior to his appointment as finance secretary for which he received P1.640 million in basic salary for July to December 2022.

Diokno’s net pay also included P7.278 million in allowances; P11.555 million in bonus, incentives and benefits; P2.195 million in discretionary and eme, P24,000 in additional compensation and honorarium and P89,067 classified as “others.” the second highest paid member of marcos’ Cabinet was socioeconomic Planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan with a net pay of P6.947 million.

Balisacan’s net pay included P3.128 million in basic salary as chairman of the Philippine Competition Commission from January to June 2022 until his appointment as socioeconomic planning secretary, which entitled him to P1.646 million in basic salary for July to December 2022. his take-home pay also included P1.182 million in bonus, incentives and benefits; u PAGE 2 sources lean towards clean energy. that being the case, I am interested in the potential of nuclear energy, especially in light of new technologies and innovations that allow the use of smaller scale, modular, nuclear reactors, and other advanced [reactors] technologies that we see as being safer and more efficient than the more traditional designs of nuclear power production,” said marcos.

President marcos first went to the U.s. in september 2022 for the 77th United Nations General Assembly. this was followed last may, highlighted u PAGE 2