{"id":18047,"date":"2026-01-01T14:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T06:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/?p=18047"},"modified":"2026-01-01T14:29:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T06:29:38","slug":"checks-issued-to-legislators-not-christmas-bonus-palawan-solon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/2026\/01\/01\/checks-issued-to-legislators-not-christmas-bonus-palawan-solon\/","title":{"rendered":"CHECKS ISSUED TO LEGISLATORS NOT CHRISTMAS BONUS \u2013 PALAWAN SOLON"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>PALAWAN 2nd district Representative and Bicameral Conference Committee member Jose C. Alvarez on Wednesday rejected claims that the House of Representatives\u2019 budget is being misused or lacks transparency, saying the checks posted by Leandro Leviste on his Facebook page reflect standard, lawful disbursements provided to all legislators\u2014not Christmas bonuses. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alvarez explained that every member of Congress receives compensation and maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) to fund the day-to-day operations of their district offices, including staff salaries, utilities, and basic services to constituents. He stressed that portraying these routine operational expenses as suspicious \u201cbonuses\u201d is misleading and inaccurate. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThere is nothing irregular about the checks issued to Rep. Leviste. They aren\u2019t Christmas bonuses as he alleges,\u201d Alvarez said. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThese are lawful, audited, and well-documented disbursements that every member of the House receives to cover the salaries of legislators and to ensure their district offices can function properly and deliver services on the ground,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alvarez also clarified that contrary to claims of a budget hike, the House of Representatives\u2019 budget for 2026 is significantly lower than in the previous year. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIn 2025, the House had a budget of P33.7 billion. For 2026, this was reduced to P27.7 billion,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cThat alone should already put to rest claims that the House increased its own budget.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>He added that the supposed P10-billion \u201cincrease\u201d being cited is not an increase at all, but merely the difference between the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and the final General Appropriations Act (GAA), after Congress exercised its constitutional power of the purse. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>As a member of the bicameral conference committee, Alvarez emphasized that the House budget undergoes the same level of scrutiny as all other government agencies, including committee hearings, plenary debates, Commission on Audit review, and public disclosure. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe House has nothing to hide. This is the most open budget in history. The whole process was live-streamed, and the budget remains open, documented, and subject to audit. Claims of misuse should be backed by facts, not baseless speculation,\u201d \u00a0the Palawan solon said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Earlier,Leviste claimed some congressmen received P2M &#8216;Christmas bonus.&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Earlier,Leviste claimed some congressmen received P2M &#8216;Christmas bonus.&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PALAWAN 2nd district Representative and Bicameral Conference Committee member Jose C. Alvarez on Wednesday rejected claims that the House of Representatives&rsquo; budget is being misused<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18049,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047\/revisions\/18049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}