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Senator Antonio Trillanes IV defended on Wed, Aug 19, his PHP18 million expense for consultancy in 2014, the highest among senators. The senator has over 40 consultants this year.
Trillanes said his strength is intelligence gathering so he optimizes the hiring of consultants. Moreover, the senator said he was able to author 17 bills and present witnesses in Senate probes because of those consultants.
“Everybody is receiving a monthly consultancy fee. I have a security analyst, financial analyst, legal consultants and all practically other aspects of governance that can help me. There are also area consultants meaning in their particular area they are the sounding board, which is very important in legislation because we need to be grounded. For example, the K-12 program – that’s where I found out not all areas in the country are in favor of K-12 program,” he said.
Trillanes admitted his brother is one of his consultants but he points out other senators also have relatives as chiefs of staff because it’s a position of trust.
He pointed out that not a single centavo of the PHP18 million went to his pocket. He said his consultants were paid roughly PHP25,000 a month.
“It’s petty. It’s a non-issue,” he said. (ANC)
Photo: News clip
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
