Travel expenses above board, Trillanes camp insists

The office of detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV defended Tuesday the P247,404 in local travel expenses it incurred in 2008 by his staff, insisting all were above board. Reynaldo Robles, Trillanes' chief of staff, said in a radio interview that the staff used the travel expenses for consultations and outreach programs in depressed areas. "It is a simple way of touching base with our poor constituents," Robles told radio dzXL in Filipino. He said the consultations and outreach and medical missions were done in depressed areas in the cities of Zamboanga, Davao, General Santos, Baguio, Caloocan and Malabon. Besides, Robles said the consultations resulted in Trillanes topping the Senate in terms of bills filed, at 341. "Maipagmamalaki ko [na] si Sen. Trillanes [ang may] pinakamaraming bill, 341 so far, at sampu rito ay naipasa na. Walang nasasayang sa pera ng bayan (I can be proud of the fact that Trillanes filed the most bills with 341 so far. Of these, 10 were passed into law. So we can say the people's money is not wasted)," he said. On Monday, a report by the Commission on Audit showed Trillanes incurred the biggest expenses among senators in 2008. [See: Despite detention, Trillanes is 4th biggest spender in Senate] It showed Trillanes received P247,404.00 for his "local travel" while his staff incurred P878,496 and P253,810 for local and foreign travel, respectively. Trillanes is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame due to rebellion charges for leading at least two attempts to overthrow the government. COA's itemized list of expenses incurred for each senator in 2008 showed Trillanes was the fourth biggest spender among senators with P17.281 million expenses. Topping the list was Senator Gregorio Honasan II, who incurred expenses of P17.902 million; Senate Pro Tempore Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada with P17.521 million; Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. with P17.479 million; and then Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan with P17.224 million. Sen. Joker Arroyo was the lowest spender with only P12.646 million. - RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV