Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s spokesperson Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. should rectify his claim that the Senate “wasted” P500 million during the 20 days it tackled two articles in the Vice President’s impeachment trial, Senator-Judge Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson said Wednesday.
Lacson said Panelo may have made an honest mistake in coming up with the “wasted P500-million” estimate, noting that the P25-million daily figure refers to the Senate’s regular operating expenses as a legislative body, and not the cost of the trial proceedings.
“Where did he get his P25M/day figure? As far as I know, the GAA 2025 budget for the impeachment trial, most of which has remained unspent (only roughly P2 million was disbursed for the judges’ robes and other items) from the original P27.5 million is now being used under the ‘continuing appropriations’ provision in the General Appropriations Act,” Lacson said.
“The P25M per day clearly refers to the legislative functions of the Senate, not to the impeachment trial as misinterpreted, and the basis was the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) and Personnel Services (PS) for one year which I computed on a per-day basis when the Cayetano-led boycott resulted in zero-legislation output due to lack of quorum after his ouster as Senate President,” he added.
“I urge the VP’s spokesman to rectify an obviously misleading figure of P500 million, as I assume it was an honest mistake on his part,” Lacson said.
Panelo on Wednesday claimed the Senate spent P500 million in taxpayers’ money over 20 trial days devoted to Articles I and IV of the Articles of Impeachment, which the prosecution subsequently withdrew – or “approximately” P25 million a day.
He cited the figure in calling for public “outrage” over the use of taxpayers’ money for the trial.
Lacson pointed out that the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) provided P27.5 million specifically for the impeachment proceedings, with the funds covered by continuing appropriations that may be obligated until December 2026.
Last June, Lacson also cited the Senate’s P25-million daily operating cost in criticizing the 28-day Senate presidency of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, saying the period represented P700 million in taxpayers’ money spent with little legislative output to show for it.
Among the lowlights of that 28-day period were a shooting inside the Senate two days after Cayetano became Senate president, and the escape of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa while under the Senate’s “protective custody.”
Other lowlights included a boycott of sessions by the Cayetano-led bloc, which became the new minority after Sen. Francis Escudero joined the new majority to form a quorum leading to the election of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as acting Senate President last June 3 – and a failed destabilization try and bogus committee hearings.#
