Palace food, phone, other bills cost taxpayers P2.36B in '06

[cc81352]

Palace food, phone, other bills cost taxpayers P2.36B in '06
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/68514/Pa...rs-P236B-in-06

The Office of the President, seat and fount of power in the land, requires piles of money to maintain.

Keeping house for Malacañang under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cost taxpayers a cool P2.36 billion in 2006, according to reports of the Commission on Audit.

The annual housekeeping tab for the Palace on average amounts to P196 million a month, or P6.5 million a day, or P273,148 every hour.

But basic housekeeping expenses – food, water, utilities, medicines, personnel services, etc. – are not the only bills that Filipinos have to shoulder to sustain the presidential household.

On average, the Palace spent P44 million a month to cover the salaries, benefits and bonuses of its regular employees, apart from an average P5 million a month in fees for consultants.

And because Mrs Arroyo traveled three times more in 2006 than she did in 2005, she incurred an average of P40 million a month for various domestic and international trips.

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[meledson]

They should also give data from previous years and previous presidents for comparison.

It is a biased reporting for me if they are just shouting that Gloria spent 2.36B in 2006.

[cutedoc]

yup they should post the previous bills as well, and govt should set an example of what they preach that we must conserve this, conserve that and yet the palace itself shouts a bountiful and arrogant living...