MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became richer by close to the equivalent of $1 million in 2008, based on an official document which she is required by law to submit to the office of the Ombudsman.
In her sworn statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (Saln), the President declared total assets in 2008 of close to $3.5 million, which was $1 million higher than her total assets of more than $2 million in the previous year.
An analysis of the President’s Saln showed that her liabilities in the form of net payables amounted to about $900,000, leaving her with a net worth of close to $2 million.
The President’s Saln, dated April 30, 2009, was obtained from the office of the Ombudsman where she and Vice President Noli de Castro are mandated by law to submit to that office every year.
The law requires all civil servants, like Cabinet members, elective officials as well as members of the military and the police from the President down to the lowly government janitor to submit annually to submit their Salns to their respective offices.
Among others, the law aims to determine whether government officials and employees have acquired unexplained wealth while in office.
The same analysis also showed that the assets of President Arroyo more than doubled since she took over Malacanang following the ouster of then president Joseph Estrada by the Edsa 11 People Power Revolution in 2001.
When she succeeded Estrada in 2001, the President declared a net asset of more than $1 million. As president, she gets an annual basic salary of $16,000.
Significantly, the President reported in her 2007 Saln that she had no “business interests and financial connections.”
But for 2008, the President reported that her husband, lawyer Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, runs a company, identified as La Vista Investments and Holdings Incorporated, with offices located in a building owned by her husband’s family in suburban Makati City, Metro Manila.
The company apparently was named after a posh and gated private housing estate located in suburban Quezon City, also in Metro Manila, where the Arroyos own a residential house.
In her 2008 Saln, the President reported that she had six real properties, including a house and lot in Baguio City, the “summer capital of the Philippines” in the Northern Luzon highlands; raw land on the island province of Palawan in Southern Luzon; a fish pond in Bulacan province in Central Luzon; a residential lot in Antipolo City, which is just outside Metro Manila in Rizal province, Southern Luzon; and an agricultural lot in Batangas province in Southern Luzon.
As required by the same law, the President also listed the names of six relatives who are in government.
They were led by her two sons, Congressman Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of Pampanga, the home province of the President in Central Luzon, and Congressman Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo of Camarines Sur province in the Bicol Region.
Two other relatives are likewise members of the House of Representatives – brother-in-law Congressman Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo of Negros Occidental province in the Visayas and sister-in-law party list Congresswoman Maria Lourdes Arroyo.
However, in her 2008 Saln, the President only listed Iggy because Maria Lourdes took her oath as a member of the House only in late April this year following a Supreme Court decision increasing to 50 the number of party list members of the House.
Based on their own Salns they had submitted to the House secretariat in May this year, the three Arroyo congressmen are among the richest members of the chamber.
Iggy appeared to be the richest of the Arroyos in the House with a net worth of close to $2 million.
But Iggy’s nephews are not far behind, with Mikey declaring a net worth of about $1 million and Dato, about $900,000.
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