Millionaires in public service

President Duterte has signed an executive order canceling “excessive pays and bonuses” of government-owned or -controlled corporations (Inquirer.net, 7/31/17). That was long overdue. Whoever said public service is such a thankless job was quite right — who needs gratitude if there is so much to loot?

The common justification or excuse for the astronomical salaries, allowances and bonuses given high government officials is the need to attract the best minds to do public service. Without such “perks” and “incentives,” it seems the message is, public service can go hang!

Based on the Commission on Audit’s “Report of Salaries and Allowances” for 2016, the most obscene pay went to then Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. (P15.9 million), followed by now Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. (P12.28 million), and deputy governors Diwa Guinigundo (P12.24 million) and Vicente Aquino (P12.14 million). Easily, each of them was receiving at least P1 million per month! Multiply that by the countless public “servants” helping themselves to amounts just slightly lesser, we are looking at billions of pesos of taxpayer money bloating personal bank accounts while the nation teeters on the brink of bankruptcy!

Incidentally, those BSP officials must have really done a terrific job in keeping things in the banking system copacetic, or in excellent order, to deserve such mind-blowing compensation. And lest it be forgotten, bank depositors all over the country must also really feel they owe it to those nabobs of the banking system for all the gains they have been enjoying with their hard-earned money deposited in banks to earn whopping interests at the rate of less than 1 percent per annum! Yet, the Supreme Court has been saying the “legal rate of interest” in this country is 6 percent per annum, so go figure!

But the thing is, many high officials in government have reported net worth in the tens or hundreds of millions of pesos. In other words, they are already so filthy rich what do they need to be paid so much for from the sweat and blood of taxpayers? Can President Duterte not cajole them into doing “missionary work” for once to tide this country over a multitude of financial difficulties he has to deal with in the next five years of his term?

President Duterte is presently grappling with the dilemma of how and where to find the funds for the rehabilitation of Marawi City now in utter ruins, his election promise of free tuition in state universities and colleges, among a myriad of other MMonetary woes. Sadly, his multimillionaire-friends in the administration do not seem to care, much less share his vision and mission, as they continue to rake it in. The President, their boss, receives under P100,000 per month in salary. Is there no one in “public service” ashamed of receiving more?

STEPHEN L. MONSANTO, Loyola Heights, Quezon City