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By Malou Mangahas, Philippine Center For
Investigative Journalism
Multimillion pesos of net growth in stocks, real assets, cash on
hand (or in bank), and other personal properties could not be
accounted for in the statements of assets and liabilities and net
worth (SALNs) that President Gloria Arroyo filed from 1992 to 2008.
With expert help from tax analysts and fund
managers, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism mapped
President Arroyo’s financial history in the last 17 years she
served as senator, then vice president, and finally, President.
The findings:
1992: Mrs. Arroyo declared a P243,936 car loan
but acquired no new car. The value of her cars (P800,000) remained
the same from 1991. She reported that a residential lot in Antipolo
booked at P94,000 but with fair market value of P1.75 million was a
“gift purchased” since 1986. Mrs. Arroyo used the term,
“pro-divided,” for her pricey house and lot in Baguio City.
1994: The sources of Mrs. Arroyo’s net cash
inflow of P595,572 could not be accounted for. The amount includes
car loan payment of P533,791, additional P57,411 cash in bank, and
P4,347 more in law books.
1995: Mrs. Arroyo declared variable fair market
values for the house and lot in Baguio City that she acquired in
1977 for P350,000. In 1991, she said the “pro-divided”
property’s fair market value was P14.9 million. In 1992-94, she
said it dipped to P4.9 million. In 1995, she raised it to P27
million, for a 450-percent increase in value in just one year. In
1996-2008, she said the property’s value had risen to P67.9
million.
1995: Mrs. Arroyo sold two pieces of
property—a residential lot in Las Piñas that she acquired in 1989
for P86,715, but which she said had fair market value that year of
P922,500; and an island in Cagayan that she said she acquired in
1970 for P8,000 but did not quote any fair market value.
1995: Mrs. Arroyo bought two pieces of real
estate—an agricultural lot in Bulacan for P1.17 million, and a
commercial lot in Tayabas, Quezon, for P1 million, but reported no
sales or cash inflow amounting to P2.27 million. In addition, she
paid P238,010 in car loan, and reported P100,468 more cash on
hand/in bank and P500,000 more in stocks. But she reported a P580
decline in the value of her jewelry (P950,580 in 1994, down to
P950,000 in 1995).
1995: Mrs. Arroyo’s property purchases and net
cash inflow totaled P3.95 million. If she sold the Las Piñas lot at
fair market value of P922,500, she should have disposed the island
in Cagayan at multiple times its acquisition value of P8,000 to
account for her big net cash inflow.
1996: Mrs. Arroyo reported no property sale or
cash inflows to account for P2,538,000 in new
acquisitions—P1,458,910 worth of additional stocks (P5.8 million
in 1996 from P4.4 million in 1995); P180,000 more for race horses
(P420,000 from P240,000 in 1995); P148,742 additional cash on
hand/in bank (P704,540 from P555,798); P650,000 more in
appliances/furniture and office equipment; and P100,000 more in law
books.
1997: Mrs. Arroyo bought an agricultural lot in
Nasugbu, Batangas, for P550,000 and declared its fair market value
at P1.5 million for a 200-percent increase in the same year.
1997: There are no property sales or cash
inflows to account for Mrs. Arroyo’s new acquisitions of
P5,107,964, and payment of P341.434 in car loan. Apart from the
purchase of the Nasugbu lot, her net cash inflow consisted of P2.2
million more cash on hand/in bank (P2,860,711 in 1997, from only
P704,540 in 1996); P180,000 more in race horses; P250,000 more worth
of jewelry; P150,000 more in appliances and furniture; P900,000 more
in law books; P141,090 more in stocks; P399,000 more in cars; and
P1.27 million she spent for improvements on her lot in Nasugbu,
Batangas; her house and lot in Baguio; and a condominium unit in
Ayala.
1997: For the first time, Mrs. Arroyo declared
“inherited properties in the process of transfer,” following the
death of her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal. In 1997,
she booked this item at P5.4 million. She continued to enroll it
among her “personal and other properties” until 2008, or for 11
years’ running.
A tax analyst could not figure out why: “It is
noteworthy that ‘Inherited Properties in process of transfer’
appears on the personal property column. Properties that are subject
to registration are normally real property and shares of stock.”
“These assets started appearing starting 1997
[up to 2008],” the analyst said. “It cannot be land [since it
appears in the personal property side]—if it is not land, what is
taking them so long to put it in their name?”
1998: There are no sales or cash inflows to
account for acquisitions of P10.4 million, including P207,508
improvements on the Ayala condominium; P3.03 million more cash on
hand and in bank; P800,000 more in jewelry; P1 million more in law
books; P5 million more in stocks; and P1.08 million more in cars.
1999: Mrs. Arroyo’s cash on hand/in bank
declined by P2.07 million. But she reported acquiring P500,000 more
in jewelry; P3 million more of stocks; and reported “inherited
properties in process of transfer, Diosdado Macapagal Sr. and
Evangelina M. Macapapagal” at a bigger value of P7.43 million.
2000: Mrs. Arroyo sold her Ayala condominium
that she said had fair market value of P23.4 million, and which she
reportedly acquired for P619,625 in 1980. Minus the 6-percent
capital gains tax on fair market value, her net proceeds would be
P12,604,695. Her cash on hand/in bank, however, went up by P32.6
million. Minus the money she raised from the Ayala condominium, Mrs.
Arroyo’s net cash inflow of P19.95 million could not be accounted
for.
2001: President Arroyo stopped listing three
companies she reported in her statements of assets and liabilities
from 1992 to 2000 in which her husband, Mike Arroyo, had business
interests or financial connections. These are the LTA Inc. (real
estate) and LTA Realty (real estate agent), both based in Makati
City, and JJ Agricultural Corp. (agricultural family business) based
in Bacolod City. From 1992 to 1999, President Arroyo said her
husband was also involved in Aviatica Travel (travel agent) and the
Arroyo Law Office.
2001: In the next seven years or 2007, President
Arroyo enroled not a single company in which she or her husband had
any business interests or financial connections.
2001: Mrs. Arroyo’s stocks suddenly went
missing. It was last booked at P7.5 million in 2000. In the next
four years, or until 2005, President Arroyo declared zero stocks.
This would return in a huge way in 2006—already worth P55 million.
2001: President Arroyo’s cash on hand/in bank
went up by P 17.95 million (up P54.3 million, from just P36.4
million in 2000). Her “inherited properties in process of
transfer” declined in value to P1.4 million, from P5.4 million in
2000.
2001: President Arroyo reduced by half the value
of jewelry (P1.2 million) and kept this figure unchanged in the next
two years. In 2004, she said her jewelry nearly tripled in value to
P3.4 million, a figure that would remain static in her next five
annual statements of assets and liabilities.
2001: The horses (last booked at P600,000)
suddenly disappeared from her statement of assets and liabilities.
If she had given the horses to her sons, without any cash exchange,
then she did not raise additional money at all but should have paid
donor’s taxes. If she sold the horses, she would have raised
P600,000 at least to make up for the increase in her cash assets,
but should have also paid capital gains taxes. Whether or not her
husband disposed of his shareholdings in the three companies his
wife had listed in prior years is unclear from the president’s
statements of assets and liabilities. If he did, the proceeds should
have been reflected in the president’s succeeding statements, and
her husband should have paid capital gains taxes.
2005: President Arroyo bought a piece of raw
land in Coron, Palawan supposedly for P2.05 million, but did not
indicate its fair market value.
2006: Mrs. Arroyo’s personal assets went up by
P 9,303,564.41, her stocks surged all too suddenly to P55.7 million,
but her cash on hand/in bank made a big dip of P44,254,143, and her
notes payable rose to P2.14 million. In 2005, she reported having
cash on hand/in bank of P55,483,015, and the next year, reported
this to have thinned to P11.23 million.
2007: President Arroyo’s assets went up by P
7.72 million. She purchased a fishpond in Malolos, Bulacan at book
value of P507,800 and again did not indicate its fair market value.
Her stocks increased by P7.2 million, even as she did not at this
time enroll any companies in which she or her husband had any
shareholdings. Her cash on hand/in bank declined by just P37,981, or
from P11,228,872 million in 2006 to P11,266,853.
2008: President Arroyo reported record net
growth in cash and assets of P45.06 million. This included P26.18
million in additional cash on hand/in bank (P37.45 million, or
thrice more than the P11.27 million she declared in 2007); and
additional stocks of P51.88 million (P110.47 million in 2008, from
P62.91 million in 2007). Mrs. Arroyo also reported taking out a
P33-million loan (notes payable) but did not say from which bank or
entity.
2008: Mrs. Arroyo sold her agricultural lot in
San Rafael, Bulacan, signing with the First Gentleman the deed of
sale on December 23, 2008. President Arroyo said she acquired the
2.9-hectare agricultural lot in 1995 for P1.2 million, but said its
fair market value by 2007 was only P4.7 million. This is based on
her statements of assets and liabilities. In the deed of sale, the
President’s husband said he bought the land in 1996 for only
P100,000. The Arroyos sold the lot for P41.5 million, or nearly 10
times more than the declared fair market value of the lot nestled in
the foothills of the Sierra Madre.
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