Sometime last week, the Philippine Inquirer reported on a story wherein Philippine Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte “pledged” that if elected president he would “commute daily to work — from Davao”.
“I will go home to Davao City every day after office hours because I want to sleep in my own bed. I will not sleep in Malacañang,” — Rodrigo Duterte
Duterte then goes on to elaborate on how such a plan wouldn’t really be as expensive for the government, because he would “borrow the private jet of Davao religious leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy to spare the government the expected expense.”
So it seems that Duterte wants us to believe that this program of him literally flying form Manila, in northern Philippines, to Davao, in southern Philippines won’t cost the government an arm and a leg. Seriously, how stupid does he think we are?
OK, so if we were to assume, that part of the cost this daily “air-commute” is offset by the fact that he is “borrowing” the jet of Quiboloy (so he doesn’t actually have to pay for the jet itself), there are obviously other costs that have to be taken into account when you fly a private chartered plane. Some of these costs include the cost of the manpower it takes to actually fly the plane, the airport fees, and the cost of maintenance. But let’s be generous and say that these are covered as part of his “deal” with Quiboloy.
One of the major costs of flying a plane, is the cost of the fuel that the plane consumes as it flies. And the cost of fuel alone could literally bankrupt Duterte. Let’s break it down:
Facts:
- A flight from Manila to Davao usually takes about 1:50 hours for a commercial flight. Assuming that a private jet is faster than a commercial jet, let’s say that the trip would take about 1 hour in either direction
- According to this Wall Street Journal report, Apollo Quiboloy’s jet is a “Gulfstream”, it doesn’t specify a model, so out of the two Gulfstream models I found (the “Gulfstream V” and “Gulfstream G550”), let’s assume its the more fuel-efficient of the two. The Guflstream G550, which consumes 358 gallons of fuel per hour.
- The Gulfstream G550 uses Jet-A jet fuel, which currently stands at a price of USD 1.70 per gallon.
So with all of these given, let’s calculate how much it would cost for a single trip from Davao to Manila, or vice versa.
We can calculate the price of each trip, by multiplying all 3 variables together (time x consumption of fuel per hour x cost per gallon). So in this case that would be 1 x 358 x 1.70 = USD 608 per trip.
And if we were to assume a USD 1 = PHP 47.62 conversion, one trip from Davao to Manila would cost approximately PHP 28,969.36.
So assuming that what Duterte says is true and he intends to fly from Davao to Manila and back again, at the start and end of each working day, that would mean he would be taking 2 trips a day, 10 trips a week, 40 trips in a month, and approximately 480 trips in a year. Assuming he follows a standard work week, and doesn’t work weekends.
So annually, Duterte’s commute bill would add up to about PHP 13,905,292.8 per year. Which, last time I checked, is no small sum for the Philippine budget.
Now of course, Duterte can offer to pay for these charges himself, and deducting it from his own salary. But I doubt he would want to shoulder such an expense himself. Considering that the salary of the President of the Philippines is currently only PHP 1,440,000 per year. Although the office is set to get a pay increase thanks to Noynoy, to about PHP 4,800,000 per year. But either way, there is no way that Duterte can finance his air-commute without significantly dipping into the public budget.
“I will go home to Davao City every day after office hours because I want to sleep in my own bed. I will not sleep in Malacañang,” — Rodrigo Duterte
The ironic thing is that Duterte is making this argument for him to air-commute to Davao every day as a way for him to save money. But it seems like this program will actually end up costing the government much much more, than if he’d just sleep in Malacañang.
Now obviously, it’s early in the campaign period (so early, that the official period hasn’t even begun). And this is probably some sort of ploy/statement by Duterte to get himself some airtime. But at the very least, I wish that he (and all candidates for that matter) wouldn’t use ploys and statements that were so obviously wrong and incorrect that they insult the electorate’s intelligence by trying to pass them off as legitimately good ideas.
