MANILA – Solicitor General Jose Calida had received around P7.46 million in excess allowances last year, according to the Commission on Audit (COA).
Based on the COA 2017 report released on Friday, Calida received a total of P8.376 million in allowances, either received through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG)-Financial Management Service (FMS) or directly.
Calida was supposed to receive only P913,950 in allowances based on COA Circular 85-25-E, which states that government officials can only receive allowances which will not exceed 50 percent of their annual basic salary. Calida is earning P1.827 million annually.
COA flagged down Calida over the same issue in 2016, when he reportedly received P1.123 million while his predecessor, Florin Hilbay, P4.662 million.
Aside from Calida, there were 14 other OSG officials who received excess allowances last year, namely: Henry Angeles, Herman Cimafranca, James Cundangan, Renan Ramos, Rex Pascual, Bernard Hernandez, Ma. Antonia Edita Dizon, Raymund Rigodon, Danilo Leyva, Lilian Abenojar, John Dale Ballinan, Perfecto Adelfo Chua Cheng, Leney Delfin-Layug and Gift Mohametano.
“The honoraria/allowances paid to some OSG officers for legal services and advice rendered to client agencies had exceeded the fifty percent of the annual basic salary by P10,774,283.92 —contrary to Item 4 of COA Circular No. 85-25-E dated April 25, 1985,” COA said. “The OSG-FMS failed to require OSG lawyers of the honoria or allowances they received from their clients, resulting in improper monitoring of these benefits for taxation purposes.”
Among those who sought the services of the OSG lawyers were the Development Bank of the Philippines, paying P1.6 million, the Department of National Defense, P480,000, Occidental Mindoro State College, P148,500, and the Central Bank of Board Liquidators, P123,675.
COA has recommended the OSG lawyers to “refund the excess amount received and deposit the same to the OSG’s Trust Fund” but they argued the legality of the additional compensation./PN
