Maintaining each Congressman/woman

In a news report, "The perks of being congressman", Posted by Alecks P. Pabico on 30 July 2007, these numbers were presented:

Table 1.
What the Public Spent for the Upkeep of Each Memberof the House of Representatives in 2005

EXPENSE ITEMS*, AMOUNT

Basic Salary, P420,000
Foreign Travel, P220,867
District Staff Allocation, P650,000
Contractual Consultants, P120,000
Research, P396,000
Consultative Local Travel, P788,764
Communication, P129,600
Supplies, P120,000
Public Affairs Fund, P308,400
Central Office Staff, P1,982,033
Equipment/Furniture and Fixtures, P21,538
Other MOE, P600,000

Source: Commission on Audit
*Figures for Foreign Travel, Consultative Local Travel, Central Office Staff and Equipment/Furniture and Fixtures are average amounts. The rest are uniform for all congressmen.

Table 2.
Annual and Monthly Upkeep of Each Member of the House of Representatives

YEAR, ANNUAL UPKEEP, MONTHLY UPKEEP

1994, P2.830M, P235,884
1995, P2.589M, P215,744
1996, P3.236M, P269,657
1997, P3.496M, P291,352
1998, P2.828M, P235,665
1999, P4.537M, P378,124
2000, P4.562M, P380,204
2001, P3.917M, P326,443
2002, P5.155M, P429,602
2004, P4.112M, P342,710
2005, P5.771M, P480,880

Source: Commission on Audit

In addition, each Congressman/woman receives pork-barrel allocations amounting to P70 million per year — P20M in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and P50M as congressional allocation for public works projects.