Just How Much is 15 Billion Pesos?

(TL;DR: A LOT!)

We all know that P15 Billion is a lot of money. But just how large a sum is it? Here’s a simple exercise to help us visualize.

Go over to your bulugasan (rice canister) and get a grain of rice. If that grain of rice was worth P100,000 then simple math will show that 10 grains of that is already P1,000,000.

10 grains * P100,000 per grain = P1 Million

See, it’s fairly easy to get from 100k to 1M. But by the same simple math, it would take 10 thousand grains for you to get a value of P1 Billion. And by simple multiplication, it would take 150 thousand grains to get a value of P15B.

P1 Billion divided by P100,000 per grain = 10,000 grains

P15 Billion divided by P100,000 per grain = 150,000 grains

I did not have the time to count 150,000 grains but if we estimated this amount using the weight of a grain of rice (as per Google), we’ll see that 1 grain is about .02 gram. Thus,

For P1 Billion: 10,000 grains * .02 gram per grain = 200 grams

For P15 Billion: 150,000 grains * .02 gram per grain = 3,000 grams or 3 kilograms

This is more than one ganta of rice, where each grain is worth P100k!

Now, when groups demand for things like higher state subsidy for education, better healthcare coverage, or housing for every Filipino, naysayers are quick to say, “Saan kukuha ng pondo ang gobyerno? Our government just does not have that kind of money.”

The 15B-peso PhilHealth fraud scandal shows us that we do have the money, it is just going to the deep pockets of unqualified officials, instead of the projects that can supposedly benefit the people.

Are you still at your bulugasan?

Take that one grain of rice in your hand. That’s P100,000. That’s enough money to buy a laptop for six students who will go through remote learning this school year. P15 Billion would have been enough to buy one million laptops.

Take two grains of rice. That’s P200,000. That’s enough to purchase 100 COVID-19 test kits that the University of the Philippines helped develop. P15 Billion would have been enough to develop more than 7.5 Million test kits.

Take five grains of rice. That’s P500,000. That’s enough to have a low-cost house built for a family of 5 to comfortably live in. P15 Billion would have been enough to give 30,000 families a home.

The P15 Billion that was reportedly lost to fraud was just in 2019. That much was allegedly lost to corruption in one agency in one year.

On the fourth year of this administration, how many more agencies are bleeding the Filipinos dry?

If 1 grain of rice were equivalent to P100,000 then P15 Billion would be more than a ganta of rice.

If we use this same analogy, majority of the people in this country will have to get by less than a grain of rice in a year. Many of our healthcare professionals, call center agents, and other frontliners who have been risking their lives everyday since the pandemic started, will get maybe three to five grains a year. Teachers who have their backs bent developing learning modules for the past weeks will get around the same number of grains as well.

Meanwhile, some privileged few will never even get to see the bottom of their bulugasan.