The report on my income is exaggerated

I wish to deny reports that I earned P10 million in salary and allowances last year. I earned only one million “Rizal” (see your Central Bank-denominated peso coin). Where the Commission on Audit got the six zeroes is something it has to explain to my spouse.

My name appeared in the list of GOCC executives earning fat paychecks in 2009. Of course, the newspapers picked it up. Of course, my relatives and neighbors heard about it. You can bet the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) read about it and will surely pull out my 2009 income tax return for review.

I received only P1 million after salary deductions for the GSIS, Pag-ibig Fund, Philhealth and the office Christmas party. I speak the truth because, like most Filipino husbands, I turn over my paycheck regularly to the wife. She knows every centavo I earn. You can’t get a better auditor than that.

She also gives me a regular allowance for lunch and gasoline expenses. She knows that my office representation allowance is for entertaining potential investors, guests and visiting VIPs from Congress and Malacañang. Occasionally, I treat her royally and submit the restaurant receipts under “representation expenses.”

I earn much higher than the underpaid CESOs and midnight appointees because the law creating our corporation allows the board of directors to set salary levels. The board also provides numerous allowances and bonuses for officers and directors. When you have that freedom, you go “kapantay ang langit, [sky is the limit].”

I’m mad at the newspapers for printing the story about me and fellow GOCC executives whose income and salaries were over-reported. I’m mad at people who twit GOCCs as Grossly Over-Compensated Corporations.

Now, some senators and congressmen want to investigate us as if we committed a giant scam like the NBN-ZTE deal. Note that 90 percent to 95 percent of our senators and representatives are millionaires, including several party-list reps. Did I ever suspect them of enriching themselves in office? Never. Did I ever suggest they’re making money from their pork barrel? My lips are sealed.

The fact is, anyone could become a millionaire overnight. If you can blow a dozen perfect smoke rings while whistling, you could earn a million bucks in “Talentadong Probinsyano.” If you charge any item worth P50,000 on your Bottomless Credit Card and pay it in a single installment, you have the chance to join the rank of the taipans.

I’ve always wanted to become a millionaire to improve the quantity of my life. I thought it was easy when, as a teenager, I read you could become a millionaire by saving and doubling that saving everyday. If you start with a centavo and double that each day, you could save a million bucks in one month. I stopped at P1000 when I realized I would have to borrow from the World Bank to double my savings each day and become a millionaire.

Mr. Benny Ricafort, president of the Clark Development Corp., and I are in the same boat. He has questioned the COA report that he received P14.5 million in salary and allowances in 2009. Actually, he got less than P3 million in salary and allowances, the same amount he was receiving since 2008.

Ricafort said he gets a yearly salary of P2.078 million, including 13th-month and 14th-month pay. His salary has not been adjusted since he was appointed CDC president in 2008, Ricafort said.

He received P10 million in extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses and P497,441 in “other expenses” in 2009, the COA report said.

But the P10 million was just “lumped under [my] name and accountability, not as compensation, subject to audit and validation,” he explained.

He said the non-compensatory amount under his name was preapproved by the CDC board for promotions, advertisements and public-client relations.

These expenses ”cannot be predicted with strict accuracy” and cannot be capped and restricted “as it may impede corporate initiatives for growth and expansion,” he said.

“Our salary structure is closely supervised, rationalized and justified. This I know for some 17 years,” said Ricafort, who served as CDC director from 1993 until his appointment as president in July 2008.

Ricafort, who spent 17 years with CDC under four presidents, is proud of his achievements that include impressive business growth and rising employment in the Clark Freeport Zone and its suburbs.

I am impressed by his mastery of numbers, an area where I am a dimwit. I could not even balance my bank statement. Each time I cannot balance savings with withdrawals, I close my bank account and open a new one. That takes care of the problem. –FRED DE LA ROSA, Manila Times

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