A LAWMAKER on Sunday called on the House of Representatives to probe the Office of the Solicitor General after the Commission on Audit flagged the P7.46-million excess allowances received by Solicitor General Jose Calida in 2017.
Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said the House should also reconsider a bill seeking to expand OSG’s powers.
“While Calida and his colleagues received huge allowances, you have OSG personnel who can barely make ends meet because they only receive P1,000 to P3,000,” Zarate said.
At least six OSG personnel received a take-home pay of only around P3,000 while one got a take-home pay of only P1,008.72 because of payroll deductions.
“With SolGen Calida’s conflict of interest in their security agency cornering lucrative deals and now this overcompensation issue, I think Congress should finally look into the supposed questionable dealings of SolGen Calida and now seriously reconsider the bill adding more powers to a man who it seems has the propensity to abuse them,” Zarate said.
The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading last month a measure placing the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel under the OSG.
State auditors said Calida was able to get a total of P8.37 million in allowances last year, of which P7.462 million was considered as excessive, or more than 50 percent of his annual salary.
Calida is receiving an annual salary of P1.827 million, his allowances should not exceed P913,950.
In 2016, Calida was also flagged for receiving P1.123 million in excessive allowances, while his predecessor, Florin Hilbay, got P4.662 million.
Calida, for his part, said he was being “attacked” for winning his quo warranto petition which led to the ouster of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
In a television interview, Calida also rejected the graft and corruption filed against him and the recent attacks against his family’s security agency that won P150-million contracts from several government agencies.
“They are fabricating charges against me. They want to destroy my family That’s big, fat lie. They want to destroy my family and I will not forgive them for that. There will be a day of reckoning,” he added.
In early May, a certain Jocelyn Marie Acosta-Nisperos, a Sereno supporter, filed a graft complaint against Calida before the Ombudsman for conflict of interest.
Nisperos cited a document from the Securities and Exchange Commission that showed Calida still owned 60 percent of Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc.
VISAI has won multi-million-peso contracts from different government agencies, namely the National Parks Development Authority Committee, National Anti-Poverty Commission, National Economic and Development Authority; Department of Justice ; and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.