Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago humbly stands alone as the only “pauper” in the House of Representatives – full of billionaires and multimillionaires.
The activist youth leader from the Makabayan bloc reported P50,000 in assets and zero liabilities in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for 2016.
The 27-year-old Miss Sarah Elago essentially makes half the salary of her lawmaker “peers” who earn more than P100,000 per month.
When compared to the richest congressman, Michael Romero of 1-Pacman Party-List group with a declared P7 billion in his SALN, Elago is around 140,000 times poorer than the business tycoon.
According to this interview with the Inquirer about her finances, Elago had this to say “I’m single and renting a place. I don’t own a house.”
Ms. Sarah Elago receives a monthly salary of P108,000 as a lawmaker under salary grade 31. However, according to Elago, she puts most of her money into her group’s activities such as free education advocacy work and youth empowerment campaigns.
“Kabataan is not just a sectoral party-list, we’re also a national mass youth organization. [The] bulk of my income goes to support for various advocacy campaigns and use of such is collectively and democratically decided upon by our national executive council,” Elago said in the interview.
The Inquirer then asked Elago how she felt about the staggering gap between her financial situation and Romero’s – she attributed it to the “very diverse composition” of the 17th Congress.
“We came from different backgrounds. I was a student activist before I became the nominee of Kabataan. Any income I earn is for the collective use or responsibility of my party,” Elago said.
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