I did the math, and here’s how much Congress values your human rights. Considering that there are 103,300,000 Filipinos by latest statistics, each of us has been generously allocated by our Congress P0.00000968 as our annual budget for the protection of our human rights. Daily, we get an even lower amount: P 0.0000000264. These amounts don’t even exist as the littlest of coins. This is how much 119 congressmen value us.
What does this mean? How is the Congress’s perception of the value of your rights stand in comparison to others?
First, it will take the daily human rights of 1,890,390 Filipinos to equal the value of five centavos. This is more than the population of Palawan and Ilocos Sur combined.
For a stick of cigarette (~P4), it will take the human rights of 151,231,200 Filipinos, more than the entire Philippine population. Yes, the entire budget of the Commission on Human Rights from the Philippine government can’t sustain an expenditure of four pesos daily.
It will take the daily rights of 264,654,600 Filipinos or the annual protection of 723,100 Filipinos to pay for a one-way minimum jeepney fare. The budget for the human rights protection of everyone from Abra, Marinduque, and Aurora combined for an entire year would only take you not more than four kilometers in a jeepney, and that is, if you are a student or a senior citizen.
The value of a bullet (P16, lead-free tungsten composite) is 604,924,800 times greater than your daily human rights protection. It means that the bullet that may kill you actually costs substantially more than the right to life you may have lost – according to the appraisal of our dearest Congressmen.
A minimum wage earner (NCR, non-agricultural) can earn the amount allotted to protect the human rights of 18,563,629,800 Filipinos, which is more than twice the entire population of the planet.
On the other hand, Assistant Secretary Margaux Uson’s, more popularly known as Mocha, daily salary is 200 BILLION TIMES greater than your daily human rights protection. Moreover, Mocha’s salary for ONE DAY is enough to fund the Commission on Human Rights for FIVE YEARS. Mocha earns the value of your daily human rights in 0.14 microseconds. Every second, she earns the value of the daily rights of 6,957,000 Filipino people.
The figure is higher for our honorable in the Congress. Their collective DAILY salary can fund the Commission on Human Rights for 1,721 years. One congressman is able to earn as much in a day as the value of the daily human rights of the entire Philippine population six times over. A congressman’s daily salary is worth the rights of 604,749,190 Filipinos. This is excluding allowances, other benefits, and their other sources of income.
There’s also Oplan Double Barrel, with a budget 900,000 times greater than that of the Commission on Human Rights. This 2018, if the budget pushes through, you are 900,000 times more likely to be *affected* by Oplan Double Barrel than the Commission on Human Rights.