Solicitor General Jose Calida remains in the company of highest paid government executives who are mostly officials of government financial institutions.
In the 2018 Report on Salaries and Allowances released by the Commission on Audit last Tuesday, the late Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Nestor Espenilla Jr. was listed at No. 1, earning for the year a total of P21.048 million in salaries and allowances. Espenilla who died last February was also the topnotcher in the 2017 list.
Calida ranked No. 6 in the list of well-paid public servants, two notches lower than his No. 4 finish in 2017.
However, his annual earnings for the period ending Dec. 31, 2018 totaled P12.47 million, higher than the P10.917 million in salaries and allowances he received in 2017, or a P1.56-million difference.
In the list of Top 20 highest paid government executives, 18 come from GFIs: 15 from the BSP; two from the Government Service Insurance System, and one from the Development Bank of the Philippines.
Coming in second is DBP president and chief executive officer Cecilia Cayosa who received P15.804 million, followed by BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa Gunigundo with P14.412 million. Fourth is BSP Deputy Gov. Maria Almasara Amador, P13.868 million, and BSP Deputy Gov. Chuchi Fornacier, P13.504 million.
Rounding up the Top 10 are: BSP Senior Assistant Gov. Ma. Ramona Gertrudes Santiago, P11.323 million; GSIS President and General Manager Jesus Clint Aranas, P11.1 million; Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, P10.919 million; and BSP Assistant Gov. Wilhelmina Mañalac, P10.889 million. (Ben Rosario)