BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr. was the highest-paid government executive, leading nine other Central Bank (CB) officials at the top of the list in the 2024 Report on Salaries and Allowances (ROSA) that the Commission on Audit (COA) released on Tuesday.
This makes it two years in a row that Remolona has topped the list after earning the same distinction in 2023.
According to the 1,443-page report, the data covered 1,009 government agencies, including 131 stand-alone government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs), 526 water districts, 237 national government agencies, and 115 state universities and colleges.
BSP officials have declined to comment on the ROSA report. Its officials have topped the list of highest-paid government executives even from the time of Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. in 2011.
Included in the computation of the official’s paycheck are his salary, allowances, bonuses, incentives, benefits, honorarium, indirect benefits and extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses (EME) received during the year.
Hard copies of the 2024 ROSA were submitted to the Office of the President, the Office of the Senate President, and the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives on May 14.
The ROSA is published every year and a soft copy of the report is made accessible to the public for reading or downloading from the official COA website.
Based on the figures, Remolona’s total pay in 2024 amounted to P47.97 million or P12.49 million higher than his P35.48 million pay the year before.
A breakdown of the figure showed he received P12 million in basic salary, P18.76 million in “bonuses, incentives, and benefits,” P14.94 million in allowances, and P2.24 million in discretionary and EME.
He also sat on the governing boards of 10 other government financial institutions (GFIs) and corporations for which he did not receive any compensation.
These were the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp (PDIC), the Philippine International Convention Center Inc (PICCI), the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), Human Settlements Development Corp. (HSDC), National Development Company (NDC), National Home Mortgage and Finance Corp (NHMFC), Philippine Guarantee Corp (Philguarantee), Philippine Center for Economic Development (PCED), Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA), the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) as chairperson, and the National Food Authority (NFA) as a council member.
Occupying second place in the list is BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier, who took home P30.39 million, up one spot from third to unseat former BSP Governor Felipe Medalla, who left the central bank in June 2023. Fonacier will retire in August this year.
DG Francisco Dakila Jr., with P28.82 million (3rd on the list), recently retired.
The other BSP officials in the top 10 are DG Elmore Capule with P26.54 million (4th), Monetary Board member Romeo Bernardo with P26.03 million (5th), senior assistant governor Edna Villa with P25.82 million (6th), senor assistant governor Johnny Noe Ravalo with P25.37 million (7th), MB member Rosalia de Leon with P25.28 million (8th), DG Eduardo Bobier with P23.75 million (9th), and MB member Benjamin Diokno with P23.52 million (10th).
Occupying 11th to 20th places in the highest-paid list are:
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra with P23.11 million; Supreme Court Justice Ramon Paul Hernando with P22.32 million; Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chairman Alejandro Tengco with P21.05 million;
BSP DG Mamerto Tangonan with P20.9 million; Supreme Court Justice Mario Lopez with P19.56 million; BSP DG Bernadette Romulo-Puyat with P19.52 million; BSP Iluminada Sicat with P19.43 million;
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo with P19.13 million; Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) president Michael de Jesus with P18.45 million; and Pagcor general manager Redentor Rivera with P17.9 million.
The COA said the data compiled in the ROSA were taken from unaudited reports that the agencies submitted and were verified by audit teams.
