A leader can learn from the certainty of death to prioritize what truly matters, to focus on building a lasting legacy beyond wealth and power, and to understand the urgency of their lessons.

Key lessons include the importance of living authentically, investing in people over possessions, making difficult decisions with courage, and accepting that some things are beyond their control.

In our country, for decades, our leaders — the most privileged among them — seemed to have missed the lessons of mortality, focusing instead on making material gains at the expense of service and legacy.

On 13 October 2013, I saw a sample letter dated 24 November 2011 from an incumbent senator, asking for P100,000,000 from the office of Senator Franklin Drilon, then chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. 

On top of the regular pork barrel of P200 million that they received each year, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Antonio Trillanes, Sergio Osmeña III and Francis Pangilinan each asked for P100 million for priority projects in letters they wrote to Senator Drilon.

Recto wrote that he was submitting his list based on Drilon’s letter dated 22 November 2011.

As Senate finance committee chair, Drilon received P100 million from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) after Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached and convicted. Additionally, Drilon’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations totaled P293 million from 2010 to 2013.

The senators who received DAP funds were Francis Pangilinan, P310.84 million; Aquilino Pimentel III, 258.1 million; Peter Alan Cayetano, P256 million; Loren Legarda, P250 million; Antonio Trillanes, P245 million; Gregorio Honasan, P238 million; Francis Escudero, P235.5 million; Ralph Recto, P233.17 million; and Vicente Sotto III, P214 million.

It was Senator Jinggoy Estrada who disclosed that the senators were given additional pork of P50 million each after the Senate impeachment court convicted Corona. 

After allegations surfaced that senators who voted to convict Corona were paid, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad admitted that 19 senators had indeed received additional sums outside the PDAF.

Abad said the 19 senators received a total of P1.107 billion in lump-sum funds six months after Corona was convicted. 

The funds were released in several installments from October to December 2012, with the allocation for each senator ranging from P30 million to P100 million. The list of recipients was topped by Drilon, who received P100 million, Escudero, who received P99 million, and then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who received P92 million.

The top DAP beneficiaries from the Liberal Party were the following: LP acting president Joseph Abaya, P408 million; LP vice chair and speaker Feliciano Belmonte, P297.487 million; majority leader Neptali Gonzales II, P263 million; Cavite governor Ayong Maliksi, P217.894 million; An Waray representative  Florencio “Bem” Noel, P179.5 million;  Batanes representative Henedina Abad, P176.62 million; Laguna representative Edgar San Luis, P160.21 million; Cebu representative Tomas Osmeña, P124.12 million; Quezon representative Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, P120.58 million; and Batangas representative Nelson Collantes, P110 million.

The rest of the congressmen were given P15 million each, in addition to their P70 million annual pork barrel.

A total of P5.041 billion in DAP funds was given to the representatives, while senators received P3.785 billion.

Email: arturobesana2@gmail.com