Trillanes: News reports on Senate spending incomplete, misleading

MANILA, February 4, 2013-Senator Antonio “Sonny” F. Trillanes IV challenged media practitioners to publish the full report of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the expenditure of the Senate in 2011.

Trillanes said the COA report, which was the basis of news reports, was “partial and misleading” because it only presented the office expenses and permanent committee expenses of each senator.

What the reports failed to include, he pointed out, were expenses of oversight committees of Senate members and their realigned budget for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) from their unfilled plantilla positions, as well as the additional budget given by the Office of the Senate President.

“I urge our responsible media practitioners to publish the full COA report, including the oversight committee expenses and the realignment of budget of each senator in the interest of transparency and fairness,” said Trillanes.

  

“If we are going to include the oversight committee expenses in the COA report, I am among those with the smallest expenditure. Unlike other senators handling multiple oversight committees, I handle only the Senate Select Oversight Committee on Government Procurement. This is not shown in the released COA report,” Trillanes protested.

He added that “based on the figures shown in the yearly COA reports, most of my expenditures are categorized under the office expenses, which is due to the fact that I have the most number of employees. It is based on the quota given to my office and I simply filled it up. ”

“Furthermore, the report did not reflect that most of the senators with unfilled plantilla positions realigned their budget to their MOOE. If we are going to factor this in, it will show that I am also among those with the smallest expenditure,” Trillanes said.

The senator also explained that his office expenses “are within the limit set by the law and are used to perform my functions as a legislator.

Since 2010, Trillanes has been the 4th most productive senator in terms of number of bills and resolutions filed with 729 bills and resolutions, 29 of which have been passed into law. He is 2nd both in terms of the most number of national bills sponsored and committee hearings conducted.