Rich inheritance makes for rich candidates

Inheritance, says a champion of transparency in government, is the part of anybody’s wealth that is easiest to declare. I inherited, period.

“Pinakamadaling ipaliwanag yan e,” says former senator Rene Saguisag.

All candidates running in the 2016 presidential elections have declared inherited properties as part of their wealth in their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN.) For one of them, the inheritance is worth almost half her entire fortune.

“Whether very rich or very poor, one could be decent,” Saguisag says, noting that a person should not be judged based on his or her inheritance. “Kaya kung ilalagay mo [sa SALN] na ikaw ay heredero like siguro si Mar [Roxas] I don’t think the people should take it against him.”

“Pero… may problema yan,” he adds, “[kung] yan ba ay galing sa jueteng. Galing sa drug lord. Galing sa masiao. Yun ang magkakaron ng issue. Otherwise aba’y sinwerte kang mayaman ang magulang.”

Inheritance represents a significant part of the wealth of three of the presidential candidates: former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas, Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor Santiago.

Roxas and Poe both inherited valuable assets from prominent parents.

Santiago, on the other hand, declared inherited properties but failed to cite from whom she inherited. More than half of the senator’s declared real estate are inherited properties.

At least P2.18 million of Roxas’ real estate properties and 22 of his 33 declared business interests are inheritance from his father, former senator Gerry Roxas. Mar inherited, as well, from his grandmother, Trinidad de Leon.

In his last SALN in 2014, jointly filed with his wife Korina Sanchez, Roxas declared P35.7 million of inherited properties, including a P9.3 million inheritance of Korina from her mother.

Poe's total inheritance amounted to more than P60 million - with 50.54 million in real estate and 9.61 million in shares of stocks.

This is almost half of Poe's declared total assets in 2014 worth P126.96 million.

Markers of wealth: What are their inherited properties?

Of the 32 companies or country and golf clubs Mar declared in 2014, 22 or more than two thirds were labelled ‘from the estate of Gerardo Roxas.’

Included in these ‘from estate of Gerardo Roxas’ are private companies, some companies registered with the Philippine Stock Exchange, as well as country and golf clubs.

The former senator and cabinet secretary is a scion of the prominent Araneta and Roxas clans. His namesake, former President Manuel Roxas, was his grandfather.

Based on the 2014 acquisition cost of Roxas and his wife Korina Sanchez’ real properties, almost half of their real assets came from inheritance. These include residential lots in Quezon City and Roxas City in Capiz.

Of their declared Php 81.24 million-worth of residential house and lot or condominium unit, Php 35.66 million are inheritance.  This includes a residential house and lot in New Manila in Quezon City, and a residential lot in Roxas City, Capiz. Capiz is Roxas’ hometown.

Roxas has been declaring these properties since his 1999 SALN.

Also included in his more latest SALNS are two “estimated value of undistributed shares in settled estate”: one of Trinidad De Leon Roxas, Roxas’ grandmother, and one of Celia B. Sanchez, Sanchez’ mother.

Roxas and Sanchez married in 2009, and Roxas has been declaring these properties since his 2011 SALN.

Like Roxas, Poe had received sizeable inheritance from a celebrity father, the legendary movie actor Fernando Poe Jr.

More than half the number of Grace’s real properties — 16 of the 30 — were declared as inheritance in her SALNs.

Aside from the real estate, Poe declared almost P10 million-worth of shares of stock in two companies as inheritance as well. 

In her most recent 2014 SALN, Santiago declared two-thirds, or eight of her 12 real estate properties, as inheritance. These include five different residential lots in La Paz, Tarlac which were inherited in 1986.

She also declared as inheritance two agricultural lots in Calinog, Iloilo and a residential house and lot in La Paz, Iloilo City. The Iloilo inheritance’s acquisition year was 1973. They were declared only in her 2014 SALN.

The senator did not disclose the source of inheritance.

In her book “Reinventing Myself”, Santiago mentioned that she and her husband Narciso have relatives in La Paz Tarlac, as well as La Paz, Iloilo. Santiago is a native of the Iloilo province.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte declared two pieces of land as inheritance in his 2004 and 2005 SALNs: a residential lot in Dumoy and a farm land in Binugao, both in Davao City.

In the mayor’s 2006 SALN, he said he had transferred almost all of his personal properties to his former wife Elizabeth Zimmerman, and his three children, incumbent Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo, former Mayor Sara, and Sebastian. These include the two parcels of land he had inherited.

As of 2014, Duterte no longer declares any inherited property in his SALN.

Not too poor to have inheritance

Last year, a video made rounds in social media questioning one of Binay’s television commercial (TVC) that implied that his mother died because they didn’t have enough money to go to the hospital.

The viral video shows a TVC of the dramatization of a young Binay crying over the lifeless body of his mother, while a voice – that of Binay himself – was saying "Bata pa ako nung mawalan ako ng mahal sa buhay... Kulang kasi ang perang pampagamot sa nanay ko."

This TVC was then compared to the clip of an interview with Binay in a media forum last June. In the said clip, Binay said "...mga ang namana ko, eh ang nanay ko eh hindi naman kahirapan", while on the subject of his increasing net worth.

In an interview on dzbb’s Ikaw Na Ba, VP Binay again denied owning the hacienda in Rosario, Batangas. He said, “Wala kaming hacienda na pagmamay ari. Meron kaming properties pero ekta-ektarya lang, hindi hacienda. At karamihan ho ng aking real estate properties, eto ho ay namana ko ho sa aking magulang."

Binay declared 13 different properties in total across his SALNs since 1989; only two of them were declared inherited.

"The VP may have been referring to land area rather than per property basis," Joey Salgado, communications director of UNA, said when sought for clarification.

Inheritance as part of declared net worth

While Roxas, Poe and Santiago all acknowledge their inherited wealth in their SALNs, only Roxas computes his inheritance as part of his total net worth.

Poe and Santiago, on the other hand, had excluded the value of their inherited properties from their total net worth.

This move drastically dragged down Poe’s net worth from P147.80 million in 2013 to P89.46 million in 2014.

Of the 30 properties she declared in her 2014 SALN, Poe marked 16 of these properties as ‘inheritance’. This is more than half of her house, lots, agricultural and commercial properties – significant enough then when in her 2014 SALN and she omitted the acquisition cost of her inheritance in her total real assets, her net worth drastically dropped.

In 2013, she had a total of Php 145.55 million worth of real properties. This dropped to 95 million in 2014 when she did not include the costs of her inherited properties.

In a statement last May, Poe explained that the reason for the reduction in her net worth was that she followed the “new rule of the Civil Service Commission (CSC)” which stated that in the case of properties received gratuitously, like inheritance, there is no need to declare the acquisition cost.

The said guideline was first implemented by the CSC for the 2012 SALNs of government officials.

“Thus, all properties inherited from my father were no longer given any acquisition cost but their market values previously indicated remain reflected therein, though no longer included in the computation of the total assets,” Poe said in the statement.

Acquisition Dates and Modes

GMA News Research noted some inconsistencies in the declaration of the acquisition modes and years of some of the inherited and purchased properties of Poe.

In her Nov 2010 and 2011 SALNs, she declared a residential house and lot in California, USA as an asset purchased in “2008 to 2009”. However, in her June 2013 SALN, she declared a residential house in lot in California USA with the same acquisition cost, but the mode of acquisition was changed to “donation” and the year to “1992”.

The declared acquisition mode of the property in California, USA went back to “purchase” in her December 2013 and 2014 SALN.

A property here in the Philippines also has the same inconsistency. In her 2010 to 2013 SALNs, Poe declared an agricultural land in Bataan that she said she purchased in 2010.

However, in her December 2013 and 2014 SALNs, she declared an agricultural land in Bataan as an inheritance acquired in 2004.

The inconsistencies in the SALNs of the senator are not limited to the modes of acquisition, but also in the years of acquisition.

Prior to 2013, she declared 11 residential house and lot and commercial buildings, and one agricultural land acquired in 2008 as inheritance from her father, actor Ronald Allan Poe, or more popularly known as Fernando Poe Jr (FPJ).

However, in her SALN after winning as senator in the 2013 elections, she declared the properties as acquired in 2004.

Another agricultural land in Batangas was previously declared to be acquired in 2009. This, too, was changed to 2004 in 2013.

Two residential condominiums in Makati and San Juan were also declared to be acquired in ‘2008 to 2009’, but this changed to 2006 on her more recent SALNs.

A residential house and lot in Quezon City was also vagely declared to be acquired in ‘2008 to 2009’, but was later in changed to 2007.

When asked about the inconsistencies, the senator attributed the changes to the modification in the procedure in the filing of SALN.

“Pinalitan nila ang procedure or yung guidelines para doon,” the senator told GMA News’ Mariz Umali.

“Lagpas sa kalahati ng aking ari-arian ay talagang from inheritance. Ngayon, yung sinabing no'ng bagong procedure ng SALN na by inheritance 'yon, separate sheet 'yon kaya nandoon na talaga nakalagay… At saka most of that time, yung mga properties na na-acquire was even before I was in government,” Poe said.

Saguisag said entries in the SALN can be changed or amended.

“Under Section 10 of Republic Act 6713, may review and compliance procedure eh,” said Saguisag. “Kaya pag ikaw eh nasila’t nagkamali, you are to be given an opportunity to correct.”

Note though, Saguisag said, the voluntary changes or corrections should be made before any investigation. “'Pag inimbestigahan ka na o nakasuhan ka na, it may be too late,” he said. - with reports from Mariz Umali and Ivan Mayrina, GMA News, FTB, GMA News Research