Thursday, September 04, 2008 Seares: ‘Underpaid’ Gloria By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo has been called a lot of names, some of which she doesn't deserve. But is she underpaid?
When a president of a country is underpaid, that insults both the president and the country. No matter how poor a nation is, the president is well compensated.
The problem is that we view compensation only as basic salary. Of course, President Arroyo gets only a fraction of what a private company's CEO is paid. But government picks up the bill for almost everything the President and immediate members of her family spend on food, housing, clothes, and others like leisure and travel.
Think of those perks and facilities, all the services available at the president's bidding. Reduced to money figures, the total sum must be monstrously huge.
Her salary is less than a hundred thousand pesos but how much does she benefit on expenses the Palace pays?
Unquestioned spending
Then there's the power of access, almost absolute and often unquestioned, to vast amounts of money disposable at her discretion. Have you seen COA report on Palace cash advances and dole-outs with the same intensity that it publicizes spending by local governments?
We ordinary laborers are obsessed with basic pay. Not the president, vice president, and legislators each of whom costs a large fortune to maintain.
You never hear them gripe about their pay slip except as a joke in a private club or at golf.
The reported agitation for increase in basic pay of our top leaders can be a sham. It may just be a ruse to make the public believe they're also hurting like most poor Filipinos in these difficult times.
