Drilon asks Aquino to suspend excessive perks of GOCC execs

President Benigno Aquino III should suspend the "excessive" allowances and other perks some executives of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC) receive, Senator Franklin Drilon said Thursday. "The President should immediately order the suspension of these excessive allowances until we can properly come up with the correct policy on this," said Drilon, head of the Senate finance committee. It is within the bounds of law that the President of the Philippines has direct supervision over GOCCs. Drilon earlier revealed that some officials of GOCCs received more than P70 million in pay and bonuses in just three years. Aside from an order from a presidential order, Drilon said Congress should also act quickly on how to eliminate these fat bonuses and allowances. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 20, which capped pay increases of GOCC officials. Drilon, however, said the Arroyo administration failed to implement this. "We are still confronted with this [problem]... something must be wrong," he said. "Abuses" within GOCCs were not limited to executive salaries, Drilon noted, saying that GOCC officials probably benefited more from unwarranted bonuses and allowances. He explained that all bonuses and allowances of GOCC executives, by virtue of representation as board members of private corporations, should go to the fund that they represent. This fact is something that GOCC officials should keep in mind, he said. The Drilon committee will summon next Tuesday executives of state firms who reportedly received excessive compensation. The committee will also look into why GOCCs failed to remit dividends to the national government. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV