(Eagle News) — The office of former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is the House of Representatives’ top spender in 2017, a Commission on Audit report showed.
According to the list published by COA on Tuesday, Jan. 23, the office of Alvarez, who served as Speaker from July 2016 to July 2018, incurred a total of P43.7 million from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017.
Of this, COA said P30 million was spent for consultants’ contracts,more than P1 million in local travel and P289,980 for foreign travels.
COA said House Minority leader Danilo Suarez camp’s expenses reached P18.32 million, but P16 million came directly from his office, while the rest came from oversight committees.
Based on the COA report, former House Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas’ camp spent a total of P16.3 million—P15.9 million directly from his office and P406,016 from the House Committee on Rules.
According to the COA report, the office of now-Speaker Gloria Arroyo spent a total of P15.7 million during that period.
