Category: Access to Information

Sheila Coronel: A Golden Age of Global Muckraking at Hand

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By Sheila Coronel*
From Global Investigative Journalism Network

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present this transcript of the keynote speech by Columbia University’s Sheila Coronel at the 2016 conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors on June 19. Coronel, who has played a key role in spreading investigative journalism worldwide, spoke to 1,850 people — the largest ever gathering of investigative journalists — about networks, collaborations, nonprofits, and a new golden age of global muckraking.
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TEN YEARS AGO, when I first moved to New York and gave my first lecture at the Columbia Journalism School, I told students that I believe we are at the dawn of a Golden Age of global muckraking. They were a great class, but they didn’t believe me.

But look at where we are now: It may not feel like it to some of you, but we are seeing, like never before, an explosion of investigative reporting around the world. There are now over 100 investigative reporting centers and organizations outside the U.S. Today, there are muckrakers even in places like Armenia, Bulgaria, Nepal, Venezuela, the Arab world.

Ten years ago, I told my students that I believe we are at the dawn of a Golden Age of global muckraking. They didn’t believe me.

These watchdog groups have seeded the unprecedented collaboration of journalists working across borders and across newsrooms. This past year has shown us how far international investigative reporting has come. Three examples.

This was the year the Panama Papers shook the world. Some 400 reporters from nearly 80 countries produced stories that made headlines everywhere. Their reporting on a leak of 11 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca caused the downfall of Iceland’s prime minister, Spain’s industry minister and Armenia’s most senior justice official. It also sparked tax evasion and money laundering investigations in several continents.

Working together under the direction of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists, these reporters proved ¬– once and for all – that there is no such thing as offshore secrecy. Thanks to them, tax-evading billionaires, kleptocrats, drug lords and assorted money launderers are quaking in their private jets. They can run but they can’t hide.

Also this year, Seafood from Slaves, an investigation by the Associated Press, won the Pulitzer Prize’s highest honor. A global team of AP reporters found thousands of poor workers from Laos, Burma, and Cambodia held in bondage by operators of Thai fishing vessels.

The AP’s reporting led to the release of 2,000 slaves like Myint Naing, who had been trafficked from Burma and found on one of the Spice Islands in Indonesia. He had been kept 22 years a slave.
Finally, this is also the year the Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was released from prison.

Khadija was arrested in Dec. 2014 and found guilty of tax evasion, embezzlement and abuse of power. Her reporting had exposed how Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev and his family had snapped up state assets. Using shell companies and nominees, they squirreled their wealth in luxury goods and real estate around the world. And yet it was Khadija, not them, who was accused, tried and jailed.

Khadija would still be behind bars today. But journalists all around the world, including many of you in this room, wrote about her and advocated on her behalf with their own governments and with the EU and the UN.

Her colleagues in the Organized Crime and Corruption Project and elsewhere also collaborated on stories exposing the corruption of the Aliyevs. They called it the Khadija Project, after the IRE’s own Arizona Project.

A lot has been said about how technology has empowered the new global investigative reporting. But it’s not machines that made all this great work possible. It’s people. People like us.

Many of you know that in 1976, a team of investigative reporters from IRE got together after Dan Bolles, an investigative journalist at the Arizona Republic, was killed by a car bomb. They agreed to continue reporting the story that Bolles had not lived to tell.

Their principle was: You can kill the journalist, but not the story.

Similarly, the Khadija Project’s message to the Aliyevs was: You can jail Khadija, but you cannot put an end to exposés. In the end, the Aliyev government realized that the political cost of keeping Khadija in prison outweighed the benefits of setting her free.

Last month, Khadija was released.

A lot has been said about how technology has empowered the new global investigative reporting. The Panama Papers and similar stories benefited from software that allows reporters to communicate and share documents securely across oceans, and from algorithms that enable them to search millions of documents in real time wherever they are.

Dateline New Orleans: Coronel’s record crowd included journalists from 32 countries.

Technology has given us new tools for dealing with big digital leaks and new sources of information, including, as in the case of Seafood from Slaves, ship sensors and satellites.

But let me tell you this: It’s not machines that made all this great work possible. It’s people. People like us. The successes I’ve described demonstrate not so much technological power as collaborative power… the power of individual reporters working together to produce journalism that is greater than the sum of each of their individual efforts.

Since the late 1990s, journalists from around the world have been meeting regularly in conferences and training workshops – like this one — and working jointly on increasingly ambitious cross-border reporting projects. These activities – and also those spirited discussions after hours (and by spirited, I mean alcohol-fueled) – have fostered camaraderie and trust. They have laid the groundwork for a truly global and networked journalism.

The era of the lone wolf is over.

Local and national accountability reporting will continue to be important, but the muckrakers of the future will no longer be so tightly tethered to the nation-state. Crime, corruption, you name it, pollution, human trafficking, money laundering, tax evasion, viruses like Zika, purchases of luxury real estate, the food we eat, the clothes we wear: All these breach national boundaries.

Since the 1990s, journalists from around the world have been meeting regularly in conferences and workshops. These activities have laid the groundwork for a truly global and networked journalism. The era of the lone wolf is over.

And thanks to a global community of muckrakers, the barriers to doing cross-border reporting are no longer insurmountable.

A borderless world needs watchdogs who can transcend borders. The Panama Papers, the Khadija Project, Offshore Leaks are examples of how this can done. They showcase the new global, networked investigative journalism.

Today, the news industry is facing huge challenges in terms of falling revenues. Moreover, all around the world — even in countries that have a free press — governments, corporations and in too many cases, terrorists and demagogues, autocrats and mafia lords, are stifling independent reporting.

There is no silver bullet, no Holy Grail that will end this crisis of news. We are in uncharted terrain. The new, global, networked journalism provides us ONE path forward, ONE model for doing ambitious, high-impact accountability reporting efficiently, rigorously, more cheaply, also more securely.

The most daring and cutting-edge accountability reporting around the world is being done by nonprofits, financially fragile papers or online news sites, and freelancers. They are extremely vulnerable.

This network model is still fluid and evolving. Unlike traditional newsrooms, networked journalism is, for better or for worse, horizontal and non-hierarchical. Membership in the network is informal – there are no membership lists or dues. Members are linked by bonds of reciprocity and trust, and also by self-interest. Units within the network may be competitive, but they choose to share and to work together on specific projects and for particular goals.

Crime and corruption networks work this way and so do jihadist groups. Their activities and lines of communication reach across national borders. Like the mythical Hydra–many heads, hard to find, difficult to exterminate. There are hubs, but no single mission control. Cross-border journalist networks operate the same way, that’s why they are effective. As the Pentagon has now realized about fighting jidhadists, “It takes a network to defeat a network.”

But how can networked journalism be sustained? Until about a decade ago, investigative reporting in the US was robust because it was propped up by a support structure of profitable news organizations that invested in reporting, independent courts that protected press freedom and the right to information, journalism schools that trained the next generation of muckrakers, and prizes that celebrated outstanding work. And of course, there’s IRE. You don’t know how lucky you were, and still are.

Crime and corruption networks reach across national borders. There are hubs, but no single control. Cross-border journalist networks are similar. As the Pentagon now realizes, “It takes a network to defeat a network.”

Elsewhere, there are huge gaps in the support structure. The most daring and cutting-edge accountability reporting around the world is being done by nonprofits, financially fragile newspapers or online news sites, and freelancers. They can barely scrape the money for ambitious reporting. They are also extremely vulnerable to legal harassment and physical threats. In these places, the courts are compromised and governments are unable to protect journalists from those who would them harm.
In too many places, investigative reporting is a high wire act – without a safety net.

Behind its many successes, cross-border investigative reporting is a flickering flame. It needs to be funded and protected. But how and by whom? Who pays for a global public good?

For sure, we have vibrant organizations that keep the fire burning. The Global Investigative Journalism Network is the communications & resource hub for watchdogs around the world. GIJN organizes meetings that bring international journalists to talk about tradecraft. Many of the early collaborative reporting projects were conceived in the corridors of these global conferences.
We have watchdog groups in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Arab world that train journalists, bring them together to discuss common issues and problems, and also fund their work. The OCCRP reports on the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, and other regions on the issues of crime and corruption. And of course, you are all familiar with ICIJ’s stellar work as a hub for distributed, cross-border reporting. It’s headquartered in Washington, D.C. but its staff is a microcosm of the world: The ICIJ director is Irish & worked in Australia, his deputy is from Argentina; the data team is headed by a Spaniard, my former student Mar Cabra, and the chief data analyst is Costa Rican. And there are some very talented Americans there, too, of course.

But funding is tight. David Kaplan, the guru of GIJN, estimates that donors invest at most $20 million a year in international investigative reporting.

That’s about 0.2% of the 7 billion pounds worth of London real estate secretly purchased by prime ministers, business magnates and others using offshore companies established by Mossack Fonseca. Thanks to the Panama Papers, The Guardian found all these properties. Seven billion pounds.

In other words, the investment in global investigative reporting pays off. Massively. The reforms that the Panama Papers have set in motion worldwide will hopefully result in billions of dollars in recovered wealth or unpaid taxes. The OCCRP estimates that the total of money frozen or paid in fines since it started work has reached $3 billion.

The Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism has nearly single-handedly introduced investigative reporting techniques and the notion of accountability in the Arab world. In the past 10 years it has trained 1,600 journalists, including the Arab reporters who worked on the Panama Papers. If we know now that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his allies skirted international sanctions by registering shell companies in places like the Seychelles, it’s because of ARIJ.

What a spectacular return on investment.

Where there is despair that nothing can be done, we offer some hope that if we shine the light on the wrongdoing, the world can be a better place. I am proud to be part of this global community of muckrakers.

In the end, however, the most valuable investments in global watchdog reporting have been made by individual journalists willing to put their lives and their freedoms on the line in order to expose wrongdoing. Khadija Ismayilova remained in Azerbaijan to report, knowing that she would sooner or later end up in jail. Not many of us – I hope – will ever be in her situation but we’re inspired by her courage and strength of purpose.

Hamoud Almahmoud continued teaching an investigative reporting course at the University of Damascus, despite the artillery fire around him. “The university was very close to the frontlines of the fighting,” he recalled “I was teaching despite all the shelling.”

Hamoud is in Amman now, where he is research director of ARIJ. But many of his colleagues in Syria have been killed or fled the country. “We see the window of hope is narrowing,” he told me, “but we are surviving and we are still doing stories.”

Lina Attalah edits the independent website Mada Masr in Egypt that could be closed any time under onerous press laws. But she and her young staff continue to do investigative reporting in order, she says, to “activate the conversation, to reopen the political space, and engage the public in conversation.”

Oscar Martinez heads the investigative unit of El Faro, an online news site in El Salvador. He’s received numerous threats for his stories on gang violence and extrajudicial killings. Last year, he had to flee the country. He’s back but he has panic buttons and other security systems in his house. He can’t even take his three-year-old daughter to the park for fear of attack.

Oscar writes beautifully about the most horrific things that people do to each other. Recalling his reporting on migrants crossing from Central America to the US, this is what he told the Texas Observer:

If there are women who had the courage to tell you how they’d been raped along the path… you as a journalist don’t have the right to just pit that back out onto a page. You have to take the time, dedicate energy and put in a lot of work to write this the best way you can so that that person’s story can generate the feeling of impotence, the rage, the compassion and the hate that it should generate.

Writing, he said, is an ethical responsibility.

For Oscar, for Lina, Hamoud and Khadija, as it is for me, and I’m sure many of you, investigative reporting is more than just exposing the bastards, although that is immensely satisfactory. I started reporting during the twilight of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, when the press was so heavily censored, we couldn’t even publish photographs showing Imelda’s double chin. For me, investigative reporting is about opening up spaces, providing facts to inform intelligent public debate, making readers empathize with the suffering of others.

Where there is despair that everything is broken and nothing can be done, we offer some hope that if we shine the light on the wrongdoing, the world can be a better place. I am proud to be part of this global community of muckrakers. We can; we should; we must keep going and I hope – I KNOW – we will all stand together.

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*Sheila S. Coronel is Dean of Academic Affairs at the Columbia Journalism School and director of the school’s Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. She is co-founder and former executive director of the pioneering Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, based in Manila.

In last 8 elections, 68 families victors in 6 vote-rich provinces

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By Rowena F. Caronan
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

PCIJ. Clans, 6 Vote-Rich Provinces, may 2016

LOCAL POLITICAL families, not political parties, are important to national politicians as they mobilize electoral support, says political scientist Julio C. Teehankee. National officials, he explains, typically have strong provincial base. They draw on support from well-entrenched networks of local political families, who often change party affiliations to secure state resources and patronage.

Of 68 recurring family names in six vote-rich provinces, or those with at least eight electoral victories in the last 24 years, at least 14 are affiliated with or have declared support for the Liberal Party (LP) of President Benigno S. Aquino III. The opposition equally has the backing of 14 other families, whereas the rest have unclear affiliation.

From the 1992 to the 2013 elections, these 68 families have won 879 or 20 percent of the combined 4,121 seats in their localities, excluding the city or municipal positions, in Cebu, Cavite, Pangasinan, Laguna, Negros Occidental, and Davao del Sur.

With a total of 10.86 million voters, these provinces can already make or break one national candidate’s electoral bid.

National-local grids

Cebu and Cavite are considered opposition bailiwicks, while Davao del Sur is to the Dutertes and Negros Occidental to the Roxases.

Pangasinan in the far north is part of the solid north bloc of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos that remains a formidable force to reckon with. Laguna, which is a recipient of the continuous urban expansion of Metro Manila, has a mixed political-party landscape.

In 2013, Negros Occidental, Pangasinan, and Cebu were among the provinces with high voter turnout rates at 81.5 percent, 81.4 percent, and 80.8 percent, respectively, or within the national average of 81.2 percent. Laguna (72 percent), Cavite (67 percent), and Davao del Sur (64.3 percent) posted lower voter turnouts.

The political families that have declared support for the candidacy of LP’s standard-bearer Manuel ‘Mar’ A. Roxas III include the Gullases of Cebu, Barzagas and Abayas of Cavite, and Maranons, Ferrers, Escalantes of Negros Occidental.

Although Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco Jr.’s Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) is backing Senator Grace Poe’s bid for the presidency, its members and political stalwarts in Negros Occidental and Pangasinan have been allowed to choose who to endorse. Poe also enjoys the support of the Duranos of Cebu, Revillas of Cavite, and incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada, whose clan dominate the mayoral race in San Juan City and Pagsanjan, Laguna.

Those endorsing the candidacy of United Nationalist Alliance’s (UNA’s) standard-bearer Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ C. Binay are the Ramas of Cebu and Remullas of Cavite. Recently, however, Cavite Governor Juanito Victor ‘Jonvic’ Remulla, erstwhile spokesperson of Binay, jumped shipped to the camp of the current presidential frontrunner, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo ‘Digong’ R. Duterte of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

Duterte has also drawn support from the Garcias of Cebu and former Senator Edgardo J. Angara’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). The Angara family is a political clan in the province of Aurora in Central Luzon, but it is not only a vote-poor province with only 126,525,000 voters, but also has a lower voter turnout — just 75.7 percent in 2013.

THE CLANS OF CEBU

PCIJ. Cebu Top clans, may 2016

Cebu has remained on top of the list of provinces with the highest number of voters with 2,722,288 or nearly half of the 6.3 million in Metro Manila, a region of 16 cities and one municipality. Too, Cebu is the center of economic trade in the Visayas, where the bustling metropolitan Cebu City is located. In 2014, Cebu posted the highest financial capacity among the provinces with P28-billion equity, or the difference between the amounts of assets and liabilities of local government units.

Over the last 24 years, majority of Cebu’s 1,021 elected officials, excluding the town council members, had run under LP’s rival parties such as the LDP and Lakas, including LAKAS-Christian Muslim Democrats (LKS-CMD) and LAKAS-Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (LKS-KAM).

Regional and provincial political parties in Cebu rarely coalesced with the LP. Aside from the LDP and Lakas, they were often associated instead with the Nacionalista Party (NP), NPC, and UNA. (UNA’s earlier name was United Opposition or UNO.)

In Cebu’s local elections from 1992 to 2013, 14 clans each have had members elected at least 10 times to a variety of seats: congressional, gubernatorial, mayoral, and vice mayoral. The Duranos had 57 electoral victories in the fifth congressional district, Danao City, and towns of Samboan and Sogod. Next to the Duranos are:

• the Martinezes with 20 in the fourth district, Bogo City, and San Remigio;
• the Garcias with 18 in the second and third districts and gubernatorial races;
• the Yaphas with 17 in the third district and Pinamungahan;
• the Ramas with 14 in Cebu City and Poro;
• the Abineses with 13 in the second district, vice gubernatorial races, and Oslob and Santander;
• the Binghays with 12 in Balamban;
• the Fernandezes with 11 in Talisay City and Pilar;
• and 10 each for the Osmenas in the third district and Cebu City, the Creuses in Malabuyoc, the Radazas in Lapu-Lapu City and its lone district, the Wenceslaos in Santander, the Bacaltoses in Sibonga, and the Arquillanos in San Francisco.

These families have controlled Cebu’s influential political parties at the provincial level, including the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) and Probinsya Muna Development Initiative (PROMDI) of the Osmeñas, Alang sa Kalambuan ug Kalinaw (ALAYON) led by the Gullases in the first district, and Partido Panaghiusa led by the Ramas. Its two leading provincial parties in the last three elections, from 2007 to 2013, were the Barug Alang sa Kauswagan ug Demokrasya (BAKUD) formed by the Duranos in 2001, and One Cebu party, by the Garcias in 2007.

The Durano-led Bakud party supported former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Lakas party in 2010. It shifted alliance to NPC and, in 2013, joined the LP coalition. At the time, the feuding family had siblings running for the same position under different political affiliations. In the 2016 polls, though, there are no family members up against each other. But instead of LP’s standard-bearer Roxas and their distant relative, PDP-Laban’s Duterte, the family is supporting Poe largely because a member of the family, Joseph Felix Mari ‘Ace’ H. Durano, serves as one of her campaign managers. Ace Durano is the nephew of Duterte. His father, Danao City Mayor Ramon ‘Nito’ D. Durano III, and the Davao City mayor are second-degree cousins.

The Duranos used to be long-time allies of the Garcias, who were affiliated with the Lakas party in 2010 and UNA in 2013. The two broke ties in 2013 when the Duranos supported the candidacy of LP’s gubernatorial bet, Hilario Davide III, who was running against a Garcia. Last month, the Garcia-led One Cebu party formally declared its support for Duterte and vowed to deliver a one-million vote difference. One Cebu claimed to have dropped its alliance with UNA because, it said, the latter lacked appreciation and reciprocation of One Cebu’s loyalty.

Of the other 12 prominent families in Cebu’s political scene, only the Martinezes, Yaphas, Wenceslaos, and Osmenas fielded candidates under the LP in 2013. The Ramas, Fernandezes, and Arquillanos ran under the Bakud party and UNA. The Binghays and Creuses were associated with One Cebu party, while the Bacaltoses were with the NP and the Radazas with the Lakas party. The Abineses were last elected in 2004 under the Lakas party.

In the 2016 polls, members of the Martinez, Yapha, Wenceslao, and Radaza families are running under the LP. The Gullas-led Alayon also showed support for Roxas, but maintained its support for fellow NP members Senators Alan Peter S. Cayetano, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr., and Antonio ‘Sonny’ F. Trillanes IV, who all are vying for the vice presidential position.

THE CLANS OF CAVITE

PCIJ. Cavite Top clans, may 2016

Cavite comes second on the list of provinces with the highest number of voters with 1,843,163 or three percent of the country’s voting population. It is one of the least-poor province with only 4.1-percent poverty incidence rate in 2012.

Since 1992, the Cavitenos have elected a total of 504 local officials. A quarter or 127 of them ran under the Lakas party, whereas 120 were affiliated with the Partido Magdalo (PM), a provincial party founded and built by the province’s longest running governor, Juanito Remulla. PM allied itself with the LDP in 1992 and 2004, Estrada’s Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP) in 1998 when he ran for president, and Lakas party in 2013. A significant number of its elected officials were members of NP.

LP, meanwhile, has garnered 91 electoral victories in Cavite so far, 78 of which were attained in the last three elections, from 2007 to 2013. Most of these were victories of members of the Abaya, Arayata, Loyola, Aguinaldo, Maliksi, Tolentino, and Campaña families who were elected at least three times each in the last eight elections.

These families are part of the 13 different clans that have a minimum of eight electoral victories each in the province. Over a quarter or 132 of Cavite’s total elected officials belong to these clans. The Arayatas and Remullas topped the Comelec list of candidates with each having 14 electoral posts in the last two decades. The Arayatas dominated the politics of the town of Tanza, whereas “Remulla” was a regular name in the second and third congressional districts as well as gubernatorial races.

Next are the Tolentinos with 13 winning candidates in Tagaytay City’s local polls. The Maliksis and Aguinaldos had 11 each in Imus City and the town of Kawit, respectively. Apart from national positions, members of the Revilla family won 10 electoral posts in the second congressional district, Bacoor City, and the province’s vice gubernatorial races. (The “Revillas” are actually Bautistas. “Revilla” is the screen surname used by members of the clan who are active in showbiz, who include Cavite 2nd District Rep. Lani Mercado, wife of Senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. Mercado, whose real name is Jesusa H. Bautista, is running for mayor of Bacoor.)

The Barzagas (in the second and fourth districts and Dasmarinas City), Ferrers (in the sixth district and the town of General Trias), and Loyolas (in the fifth district and the town of Carmona) follow with nine electoral wins. Then come the Abayas in the first district, Campañas in the town of General Trias, Nazarenos in the town of Naic, and del Rosarios in the town of Tanza had eight wins each.

In 2013, 10 of these 13 families were affiliated with the LP. Only the Remullas, Revillas, and Nazarenos remained staunchly with the opposition.

The Lakas party of Bong Revilla, who claimed to have been detained since 2014 on plunder and graft charges because of his plan to run for the 2016 presidential race, endorsed the vice presidential candidacy of Marcos. The party, however, failed to reach a consensus on who to endorse in the presidential race. Thus, members are split among Binay, Duterte, and Poe. The Revillas alone are supporting Poe.

Among the 10 recurring family names in the Cavite political scene, the Abayas were the longest members of LP, having been affiliated with the party since 2001. The Arayatas, Aguinaldos, Campañas, del Rosarios, and Maliksis used to be members of LDP and PM, but they became LP converts in 2007. The Tolentinos and Loyolas had run under the Lakas Party, and then switched to LP in 2010. In 2013, the Barzagas and Ferrers joined the National Unity Party (NUP), which was part of the LP-led coalition.

Aquino appointed Francis N. Tolentino as head of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in 2010, and Joseph Emilio Abaya as secretary of Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in 2012. Tolentino is seeking a Senate seat in the 2016 elections and declared his support for Duterte’s presidential bid. He is not running under the banner of the LP, but his brother is.

THE CLANS OF PANGASINAN

PCIJ.Pangasinan Top clans, may 2016

Pangasinan is home to the third largest voting population of 1,705,260 and makes up half of Ilocos region’s population. It is among the richest provinces in 2014 with a P4.23-billion equity, which compares with that of highly urbanized cities of Marikina, Calamba in Laguna, and Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Oriental.

Since 1992, nearly half or 426 of Pangasinan’s 922 elected officials, excluding city/municipal councilors, were affiliated with the Lakas party. Others ran under the NPC and its allies (211), the LDP (63), LP (40), LAMMP (23), Partido para sa Demokratikong Reporma or REPORMA (15), Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino or PMP (7), and UNA (4). Many, too, were independent candidates (53).

All 14 prominent families that have dominated Pangasinense politics have been affiliated with the Lakas party and NPC of Cojuangco, a Pangasinense political kingpin whose wife belongs to the Oppen political family of Negros Occidental. Among the 14 clans are the Perezes with 22 electoral victories, the Celestes with 19, the Espinos and Reyeses with 17 each, the Sorianos with 15, the Villars with 14, the Resuellos and de Veras with 12 each, the Calimlims, Rosetes, and de Guzmans with 11 each, and the Agbayanis and Peraltas with 10 each.

The Perezes turn up frequently on Comelec’s list of candidates in Pangasinan’s Urdaneta City and the town of San Manuel, as well as in its fifth congressional district, where they fight for dominance against the Cojuangcos. The Celeste family name often shows up in Bolinao’s political scene; the Espinos, in the second district, gubernatorial races, and the town of Bautista; the Reyeses, in the towns of Mabini and San Quintin; the Resuellos, in San Carlos City; and Calimlims, in the town of Mapandan.

In the 2016 elections, the Espinos and Calimlims of the Aksyon Demokratiko (Aksyon) declared their support for Roxas. Their former ally, former Pangasinan fifth district Congressman Mark Cojuangco, has pledged support for Roxas’s rival, Binay, defying his father’s and NPC’s decision to endorse Poe. Both Espinos and Cojuangcos, however, are supporting the vice presidential bid of Marcos. Meanwhile, the Perezes, Peraltas, and Celestes are allied with the NPC, but it remains unclear whose candidacy they support.

THE CLANS OF LAGUNA

PCIJ. Laguna Top clans, may 2016

Laguna is fourth on the list of provinces with the most number of registered voters with 1,675,366 voters. Laguna’s economy is a mix of industrial, largely boosted by nearby Metro Manila, and agricultural activities in distant areas.

Laguna’s 608 elected officials from 1992 to 2013 were also a mix of several family names affiliated with national political parties such as the Lakas Party (227), LDP (103), LP (49), UNA (40), NPC (39), and NP (28), among others. In 2013, 29 of Laguna’s elected officials ran under the UNA banner; 23 were with the LP; and 17, with the NP.

Only six clans had at least eight electoral victories each in Laguna: The Chipecos won 11 times in total in the second congressional district and Calamba City’s mayoral seats. The Perezes were elected eight times as mayor of the cities of Los Banos and Binan. Eight electoral victories were also enjoyed by the San Luises in the fourth congressional district, provincial seats, and the town of Santa Cruz; the Buesers in the third district and the city of San Pablo and town of Alaminos; the Ramoses in the town of Bay; and the Sanchezes in Calauan City and town of Pakil.

The Ejercito clan, which traces its roots in Laguna, had a total of seven electoral victories in the town of Pagsanjan and gubernatorial positions. Other members of the clan dominate the politics of San Juan City in Metro Manila, where former ousted President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada began his political career. Estrada is endorsing the candidacy of Poe, daughter of his long-time friend, the movie king Fernando Poe. Jr. The latter also ran for president in 2004 but lost.

THE CLANS OF NEGROS OCCIDENTAL

PCIJ. Negros Occidental Top Clans, may 2016

Negros Occidental, the country’s major sugar producer, is the fifth most vote-rich province with 1,663,492 registered voters. Both presidential aspirants Roxas and Poe have significant ties to the province. Roxas traces his maternal roots in Bago City, while Poe’s adoptive mother hails from Bacolod City.

For years, several of the province’s 674 elected officials were members of the NPC and the former ruling Lakas party. A third or more of the 83 to 85 local officials belong to either of these two parties. In 2013, however, several of them joined the LP and supported the LP-led coalition. NPC also allied with the LP at the time.

News reports have quoted local NPC members as saying that the NPC national leadership have allowed them to choose who to support in the 2016 presidential candidates, although the NPC has declared that it is backing Poe’s presidential candidacy.

The Marañons, Ferrers, Escalantes, and Zaycos are among the province’s prominent families that have shown support for Roxas’s presidential bid in 2016. The Maranñons dominate the second congressional district and Sagay City as well as the gubernatorial races in the last two decades with 19 electoral victories. The Ferrers are powerful in the fourth district and in La Carlota City. The Escalantes, meanwhile, reign in the city of Cadiz and town of Manapala, and were elected 13 times. The Zaycos obtained 14 electoral posts in Kabankalan City’s 24 years of election.

Nine other families frequently pop up in Comelec’s list of candidates in Negros Occidental. They are the Lacsons who have won 25 electoral posts in the province’s third congressional district and gubernatorial races as well as in San Carlos City and the towns of Murcia and Enrique B. Magalona. Other families include the Alvarezes in the sixth district and town of Ilog with 17 electoral wins; the Yulos in the fifth district, Bago City, and town of Binalbagan with 15 wins; the Lizareses in Talisay City, Palancas in Victorias City, and Toreses in Bago City with 11 wins each; and the Montillas in Sipalay City and Garcias in the town of Moises Padilla with 10 wins each.

THE CLANS OF DAVAO DEL SUR

PCIJ. Davao del Sur Top clans, may 2016

Davao del Sur down south ranks as the 12th most vote-rich province in the Philippines and the first in Mindanao region with 1,247,362 voters. Its center, Davao City, is Duterte’s bailiwick where he has served as an elected official for more than two decades. Members of the Duterte clan have chalked up a total of 11 electoral victories from 1992 to 2013.

Since 2010, the Dutertes had run under the LP, which has fielded Roxas for the 2016 presidential race. Duterte at first had resisted calls for him to run for president. When he finally decided in December 2015 to enter the race, he obtained support from PDP-Laban and former Senator Manuel B. Villar’s NP. No political clan in Davao del Sur was affiliated with the PDP-Laban in 2013, but two of the province’s nine enduring political clans, which won at least 10 electoral posts in the last eight elections, ran under the NP.

The Cagases, who dominate the province’s first congressional district and won twice in the gubernatorial races, used to be with the Lakas party; they had been with the NP since 2010. The Mariscals of the town of Santa Maria were affiliated with the Lakas party from 1992 to 1998, and with the NPC from 2001 to 2010. They became NP converts in 2013.

Two other political clans were affiliated with the LP in 2013. The Bautistas of the province’s second congressional district and town of Malita ran under the NPC and Lakas from 1992 to 2010. In 2013, they shifted alliance to the LP. The Garcias, which remained unseated in the first congressional district of Davao City, were affiliated with the NPC in 1992 and from 2001 to 2010; they joined the LP in 2013.

Another two of the nine ran under the NPC in 2013. The Lopezes, which won 14 electoral posts in the third congressional district of Davao City and town of Santa Cruz, have frequently changed affiliations from the PMP to the Lakas party, and then to the NPC in 2013. The Latasas of Digos City had been with the NPC since 1992. The Colinas ran under the Lakas party from 1992 to 1998, and then shifted alliance to NPC from 2001 to 2007. They returned to the Lakas party in 2010, and then moved again to NPC in 2013.

Only the Camineros of the town Kiblawan, who were previously affiliated with the Lakas party and NPC, joined Binay’s UNA in 2013.— PCIJ, May 2016
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For details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

SALN files of wannabe presidents writ in opaque, loose, curious parts

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By The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

PCIJ’s Wealth Check Reports on the Candidates for President:

* JEJOMAR BINAY, United Nationalist Alliance
* MIRIAM DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO, People’s Reform Party
* RODRIGO DUTERTE, PDP-Laban
* GRACE POE, Galing at Puso
* MANUEL ROXAS II, Liberal Party

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THEY ARE MULTIMILLIONAIRES, affluent and ambitious to the last.

On Monday, May 9, Filipinos will get to pick one among them to be president, and another to be vice president, of the nation.

The candidates themselves have tried to make it easier for voters to choose. Months ahead of the official campaign period, for instance, four of the five candidates for president and five of the six for vice president rolled out multibillion pesos worth of television ads to win the favor of the 55.7-million registered Filipino voters at home and overseas.

That kind of spending, of course, is alien to majority of Filipino voters. Strapped by a lack of choices and resources, most Filipinos are so unlike the candidates who are invariably awash in wealth, status, and perks.

Politics is writ in riddles, indeed. Why, for instance, should class wish to serve mass for a pittance? And a pittance it is, even with the salary standardization law that passed this year raising the President’s monthly salary to P400,000.

That adjustment in pay takes effect in the next administration. Until then, the country’s chief executive’s lawful monthly pay remains at about P120,000 before tax, or multiplied by 13 months, P1.56 million a year. That adds up to at most P9.36 million throughout his/her six-year full term equivalent to 78 months. And because that salary rate falls under the taxman’s 32-percent bracket, the President’s lawful salary, net of tax, has actually been much less, at just about P80,000 a month.

Yet, to get to power, a presidential or vice-presidential candidate must burn billions. Today, political analysts say, a candidate for president may need from P3 billion to P5 billion to bankroll a decent election campaign across the nation.

To be sure, before the path to power, all the current candidates for the nation’s top two posts had taken a journey to wealth. By the available documents, though, their wealth stories are often opaque or wanting in clarity and detail, or even loose and wobbly at the seams.

PCIJ took a look at the state of wealth of the five candidates for president:

• Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA);
• Davao City Mayor Rodrigo ‘Digong’ Duterte of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) Party;
• Sen. Mary Grace Poe Llamanzares, of the Galing at Puso slate;
• Former Local Government Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II of the administration Liberal Party (LP); and
• Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago of the People’s Reform Party (PRP).

PCIJ also looked at the state of wealth of six candidates for vice president:

• Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of the Nacionalista Party (NP) and Duterte’s running mate;
• Sen. Francis Joseph ‘Chiz’ Escudero, Poe’s running mate;
• Sen. Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan, Binay’s running mate;
• Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. of the NP and Defensor-Santiago’s running mate;
• Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Independent, but also an NP member; and
• Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo of the LP and Roxas’s running mate.

In their latest statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) filed in April 2014, the presidential candidates of May 2016 have declared modest to mammoth net worth. Except for Duterte and Poe, however, the latest SALN for the year 2015 of the other candidates have yet to be released to the public. PCIJ has also obtained copies of the SALN for 2015 of three candidates for vice president: Escudero, Robredo, and Trillanes.

To establish a baseline of wealth for each of the candidates, PCIJ reviewed the SALNs they had filed in prior years, starting with their respective first year in public service as either elective or appointive officials. Because some candidates had served longer in government, and others for just brief periods of time, the breadth or timeline of wealth could not be established in identical manner for all the candidates.

In the course of doing this story, PCIJ noticed that some of the candidates had close family members occupying or had occupied significant political posts. Available SALNs of these family members were therefore reviewed as well to come up with a more complete wealth narrative for the candidates involved.

The battle for the presidency is a five-way affair: three men (Binay, Duterte, and Roxas) and two women (Poe and Defensor-Santiago) are slugging it out. Four of the five are incumbents (Binay, Duterte, Poe, and Defensor-Santiago). The fifth, Roxas, quit his latest post as Interior and Local Government secretary in October 2015 to prepare for his presidential run.

All five wannabe-presidents declared big net worth values in their respective SALN for 2014. The latest available for Binay, Defensor-Santiago, and Roxas were their 2014 SALN but PCIJ has also obtained copies of the SALN for 2015 of Duterte and Poe.

As of their 2014 SALN, by order of claimed penury, by net worth, the “poorest” is Duterte with P21.9 million, followed by Binay with P60.25 million, Defensor-Santiago with P73.03 million, Poe with P89.5 million, and Roxas with P202.08 million.

(Duterte in his SALN for 2015 declared a slightly higher net worth of P23.5 million, as of last yearend.)

But as a group, how the wealth of the five presidentiables rose, fell, and rose again while in public office is a story with neither logic nor symmetry.

Two candidates — Poe and Roxas — enrolled properties inherited from their parents, or through court orders with zero acquisition value, thus artificially deflating or denting what might be the true expanse of their wealth.

A manual issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on how to comply with “The SALN Law” or Republic Act No. 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees) spells out the following modes of acquisition of real properties:

• Purchase
• Donation
• Inheritance
• Trust
• Exchange
• As a consequence of contract (tradition)
• Occupation
• Intellectual creation
• Law, or by order of the court
• Prescription

The CSC manual states, however, that “in case of purchase by installment of immovable, the equity and amortizations so far paid should be declared as Equity in Installment Purchases under Other Personal Property, rather than Real Property (even if the contract may be registered with the register of deeds).”

“It is only when the Real Property is fully paid and title transfers to the buyer that the property is declared as a Real Property in the SALN,” the manual stated.

Too, there is a discernible shift from listing mostly real to more personal and other properties – which has less and weaker documentation, and thus could be easily hidden — in the SALNs that the five presidential candidates have filed through the years. The most notable signs of this shift to personal properties are the bursting “cash on hand/in bank” and investments in stocks they declared in their SALNs.

Then again, some of the candidates have also declared bigger and bigger amounts of liabilities to creditors or agencies not fully named in their SALN. Yet, despite their growing liabilities, these candidates have declared bigger net worth values through the years. — PCIJ, May 2016
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For details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Wealth Check: RODRIGO DUTERTE

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By The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

PCIJ. RODRIGO DUTERTE SALN Timeline, may 2016

IN HIS latest SALN for the year 2015, presidential frontrunner and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte declared a net worth for 2015 of only P23,514,569.93, or a slight P1.54-million increase in his declared net worth in 2014.

Duterte’s cash on hand/in bank, according to his latest SALN, was just P14,839,69.93, as of Dec. 31, 2015.

The earliest SALN Duterte had filed that is on PCIJ’s archives is for the year 1997, in which he declared a net worth of only P897,792.

In an earlier report this week on Duterte’s SALNs, PCIJ had noted, among other things, that Duterte’s net worth and “cash on hand/in bank” have charted an upward trek in the last two decades, save for one year.

But recent press interviews with Duterte have revealed a few more details previously unknown about his wealth, or which do not seem to be included in his SALN filings.

For one, Duterte told reporters last week that he has a dollar savings account with “about $5,000,” money that he said he had saved from an overseas trip he took many years ago. No dollar values in his “cash on hand/in bank” had ever been enrolled in Duterte’s SALNs.

For another, Duterte this week appeared in the late night TV program of his long-time friend and now ardent campaign supporter, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. During the program, Duterte said Quiboloy, founder of The Kingdom of God, had given him three properties and two cars while he was mayor of Davao City.

“When I was mayor, Pastor bought three properties,” said Duterte. “He said, ‘I will buy properties for your children because if anything happens to you because of your work, if you die….'”

He said Quiboloy had also given him a Nissan Safari and a Ford Expedition.

The properties that Quiboloy had bought for him included, according to Duterte, a house and lot at Woodridge Park in Ma-a, Davao City, and another house and lot at Royal Pines Subdivision in Matina, Davao City.

Duterte did not specify the year – or years – when he became a beneficiary of Quiboloy’s generosity.

No Nissan Safari or Ford Expedition appears in Duterte’s latest SALN, although he listed a Nissan Patrol in his 2011 SALN. In his 2015 SALN, Duterte declared owning only two vehicles: a Toyota RAV 4 and a “Volks Sedan.” Duterte, however, had also listed “cars/motorcycles” in various SALN filings through the years, with total values that ranged from P1.2 million to P2.75 million.

Meanwhile, in his 2015 SALN, Duterte listed as his personal properties three lots in Bagong Aplaya, Davao City that he said he purchased between 1995 and 1997. But a second list of “other assets and personal properties, including those of the spouse and children below 18 years old,” Duterte enrolled a lot in Ma-a and a house and lot in Matina among other assets. He said he purchased the two properties in 1997-98.

Yet still on another page of his 2015 SALN, Duterte listed a third set of real properties that he noted were “purchased through the exclusive funds of (the mother of his 11-year-old daughter), Cielito S. Avancena.”

This third set of properties includes three lots — two agricultural and one residential — located in Matina, Malagos, and Catigan, all in Davao City; and two house and lots in Matina; Davao City.

Duterte valued this final set of real properties at P3.08 million, by acquisition cost.

A Ma-a residential lot first appeared in Duterte’s SALN in 1998, then in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2005.

In 2006, his SALN had this note: “All other lots previously declared were already transferred to the three children and to Elizabeth Zimmerman on May 24, 2006.”

(Zimmerman is Duterte’s first wife. In 1998, she filed a petition to nullify their marriage, and two years later, a Pasig trial court granted her plea. They have children, now all grown up: Paolo, Sara, and Sebastian.)

Duterte’s 2006 SALN, though, listed a new residential lot asset in Ma-a that he said was purchased in 1997. He did not put an acquisition cost for it, but imputed current fair market value of P42,570.

In his 2007 SALN, two residential lots in Ma-a are listed. Again, Duterte did not put any acquisition cost, but put a fair market value of P42,570 and P27,000 respectively. He also said one was purchased in1997 and the other in 1999.

In 2008, Duterte declared real assets of P4.45 million, with an annex listing 15 pieces of real assets — all purchased — from 1996 to 2002, to represent “real properties and vehicles of declarant/spouse/declarant’s children below 18 years of age living in the household of declarant, regardless of amount.”

Among the 15 real assets on this list are two residential lots in Ma-a, and two in Matina.

On the SALN column for “kind of real property,” for the Matina lots, he put the name of his child by his second wife, with the notation “Residential Land.” At the time, the child was four years old.

The 2008 SALN indicates that one of the Matina assets was purchased in 2005 and had an acquisition cost of P350,000. The other was bought in 2007, but no acquisition cost appears in the document.

Two Ma-a and two Matina properties are also listed in Duterte’s SALN for the following year. The Matina lots are still in the child’s name, but this time around, one already had a different “mode of acquisition” entry: not “purchased,” but “exchanged.”

Properties in Ma-a and Matina with the same descriptions and notations would also appear in his 2011 and 2014 SALNs.

Aside from Quiboloy’s “gifts” of vehicles and pieces of property, however, Duterte has at least one more piece of real estate that should have appeared in his SALNs yet seems to be missing.

In recent weeks, Duterte has been fighting off accusations that he has bank accounts through which hundreds of millions of pesos have passed, as well as being the alleged owner of some 40 pieces of real estate. One of those properties – a townhouse in San Juan, Metro Manila — was apparently used as the address to open one of Duterte’s bank accounts in question.

Last week, Duterte’s youngest son Sebastian or Baste, confirmed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he had lived in the townhouse “when I was 13 years old, when I started schooling at San Beda. I did not know at the time that the property was in my name.”

Duterte was then a member of the House of Representatives but has not, then as now, declared the San Juan townhouse in his SALNs through the years.

Sebastian Duterte is now 28 years old and a father himself. Among Duterte’s grown-up children, he is the only political holdout, apparently choosing to surf and engage in business than having a seat in city hall.

In contrast, Duterte’s eldest son Paolo or Pulong and eldest daughter Sara or Inday Sara have already spent considerable time in politics.

Sara first served vice mayor to her father the mayor from 2007 to 2010. She later became mayor from 2010 to 2013 of Davao City, an apparent stand-in for Duterte, who had reached his three-term limit by then. Duterte himself became his daughter’s vice mayor.

In 2013, Duterte ran again and won again as mayor, with son Paolo as vice mayor.

Duterte (1)

 

Both Paolo and Sara Duterte first assumed political posts in 2007 – Paolo as barangay captain and Sara as vice mayor. Based on their SALNs, both siblings were already involved in a few businesses by the time they entered politics. Aside from these, though, Sara and Paolo appear to have worked mostly in politics (although Sara, a lawyer, had a brief stint working at the Supreme Court).

Paolo’s official profile lists his work history thus: barangay captain of Catalunan Grande, Davao City from 2007 to 2013, and vice mayor from 2013. He has five children aged four to 22 years old by wife January Tabar Navares.

In his SALN for 2013, Paolo declared his net worth at P17,137,800 — assets of P21,837,800 minus liabilities of exactly P4.7 million.

A year later, in his SALN for 2014, his net worth rose by exactly P150,000 only to P17,287,800 — assets of P24,847,800 minus liabilities of exactly P7 million.

Even while he was serving as vice mayor, Paolo maintained business interests in and financial connections with five entities based in Davao City, one in Manila, and one other in Laguna.

These are:

• Grand MD Business Dev. Corporation, Davao City, as of 2007;
• Jolly General Foods Corp., Davao City, 2007;
• Server Cuisine Corp., Sta. Rosa, Laguna, 2006;
• Boarding House, Davao City, 2009;
• Chinese Gen Bee Foods Corp., Manila, 2013;
• Long Water, Catalunan Grande, Davao City, 2014; and
• Long Tuna, Catalunan Grande, Davao City, 2014.

Sara, for her part, declared in 2007 SALN a net worth of only P7.25 million — assets of P9.25 million minus liabilities of exactly P2 million.

The next year, 2008, her wealth more than doubled with her net worth rising to P18.49 million — assets of P20.27 million minus liabilities of 1,775,000.

In her 2009 SALN, Sara reflected a decline by P212,000 of her net worth: P18.28 million — assets of P20.17 million minus liabilities of P1.89 million.

As mayor in 2011, Sara’s SALN showed a dip in her net worth by nearly P4 million, on account largely of bigger liabilities. She put her net worth that year at P14.27 million — assets of P21.82 million minus liabilities of P7.55 million.

In 2007, Vice Mayor Sara had business interests and financial connections only in three entities:

• Davao Emerging Taipan Corporation, Davao City, as of 2004;
• Davao Bounty Times Food Corporation, Davao City, 2007; and
• City Hall King Chow Foods Corporation, Davao City, 2007.

By 2011, Mayor Sara had acquired, apart from the three listed above, business interest in four more entities:

• SGT Fortune Horse Corporation, Davao City, 2010;
• CYKT Inc., Davao City, 2010;
• Zelta Matiem Salon, Davao City, 2011; and
• 3 Kids Inc., Davao City, 2011.

Sara married fellow lawyer Manases Carpio, son of Court of Appeals Justice Agnes Reyes Carpio, in 2007. The couple has two children.

All told, by 2014, the combined net worth of the three Dutertes in public office would have reached P53,529,881 — Rodrigo’s P21.97 million, Paolo’s P17.28 million (2014 SALN), and Sara’s P14.27 million (2011 SALN). — PCIJ, MAY 2016
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For details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Wealth Check: MAR ROXAS

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By The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

PCIJ. MAR ROXAS SALN Timeline, may 2016

MANUEL ‘MAR’ ROXAS II, scion of the old-rich Araneta and Roxas clans, is the wealthiest of the five candidates for president, according to the 14 annual SALN filings he had submitted.

A latecomer in politics, Roxas used to work as a fund manager in New York and travelled between Manila and the United States from 1986 to 1992. He finally decided to settle in the country after his younger brother Gerardo ‘Dinggoy’Roxas Jr., then Capiz’s 1st District Representative in Congress, died of colon cancer in 1993 at age 33.

Dinggoy’s death got Mar started in politics. Mar ran and won in the special election conducted to choose Dinggoy’s replacement, was voted congressman again from 1995 to 1998, and senator from 2004 to 2009.

Between periods, he served as Cabinet secretary to three Presidents: as Trade and Industry Secretary to Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (1998-2002), and as Transportation and Communications and later Interior and Local Government Secretary to Benigno S. Aquino III (2011-October 2015).

Roxas’s SALN for 1995 showed his effective net worth to be P23.4 million (none indicated in real properties, P25.9 million in personal and other properties, and P2.4 million in liabilities). He did not add the amounts in his 1995 filing.

In 1996, however, Roxas enrolled P24.67 million in liabilities, the same value for his real properties, and slightly more or P35.91 million in personal and other properties. The net worth that results is a much lower P35.02 million a year later.

His net worth reached its peak in 2011, a year after he lost the vice presidential race to Jejomar Binay in 2010. This was when Roxas declared a net worth of P183.1 million consisting of P86.44 million in real properties, P174.14 million in personal and other properties, and also P77.48 million in liabilities.

In 2009, Roxas married ABS-CBN TV and radio anchor Korina Sanchez. He has a grown-up son, Paolo Gerardo Z. Roxas, by a former girlfriend, 1971 Miss Young International Philippines Maricar Zaldarriaga.

Roxas’s latest SALN for 2014 reflected a lower value of P81.24 million for real properties, but bigger values for personal and other properties (P202.71 million), and a bigger loans portfolio of P81.22 million.

He closed the year with a P202.08 million net worth, his biggest in 14 years since he entered public office in 1993.

Of the six candidates for president, Roxas is the most connected to a web of business and financial interests inherited and acquired from as far back as the ’80s. The Araneta and Roxas families have vast land and properties, as well as investments in agriculture, real estate, property leasing and development, and mining.

In 2014 SALN, Roxas declared that he has stocks or membership shares in, or has been a shareholder or incorporator of 32 various business entities. These are:

• AB Agricultural and Business Corporation;
• Baguio Country Club Corporation;
• Calima International;
• Road, Baguio City;
• Civil Air Rural Transport System, Inc.;
• Club Filipino, Inc.;
• Financing Corporation of the Philippines;
• Harmony Assets Holdings;
• Jollibee Foods Corporation;
• Kauswagan Development Corporation;
• Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company-Class A;
• Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company-Class B;
• Ma-ao Sugar Central Co., Inc.;
• Manila Doctors, Inc.;
• Manila Golf and Country Club, Inc.;
• Manila Mining Corporation-Class A;
• Manila Mining Corporation-Class B;
• Marinduque Mining and Industrial Corporation;
• Mindanao Mother Lake Mines, Inc.;
• Myapo Prawn Farm;
• Northstar Capital, Inc;.
• Pards and Mills Corporation ;
• Philex Mining Corporation-Class A;
• Philex Mining Corporation-Class B;
• Private Development Corporation of the Philippines;
• Samar Mining Company, Inc.;
• Seafront Petroleum and Mineral Resources-Class A;
• Seafront Petroleum and Mineral Resources-Class B;
• Santa Elena Golf Club;
• Talisay-Silay Milling Co., Inc.;
• Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club; and
• Western Minolco Corporation.

In his first available SALN for the year 1993, Roxas had declared business interest in only five entities, all family-owned. These are:

• Northstar Capital, Inc., located at No. 151 Paseo de Roxas, Pasay Road, Makati, Metro Manila, since June 1990;
• Myapo Prawn Farm Corporation, Baybay, Roxas City, since July 1988;
• Kauswagan Development Corporation, 17th Floor Aurora Tower, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City, since August 1980;
• Progressive Development Corporation,17th Floor Aurora Tower, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City, since May 1986; and
• Atok Big Wedge Mining Co., Inc., 17th Floor Aurora Tower, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City, since January 1991.

PCIJ. Roxas SALN may 2016

Roxas’s SALN story shares a similar trajectory to that taken by Binay’s. His net worth values showed significant upticks before or after an election year — from P12.7 million in 1993 to P23.8 million in 1994; from P23.47 million in 1995 to P35.02 million in 1996; from P51.2 million in 1998 to P58.2 million in 1999; from P50.54 million in 2004 to P P75.78 million in 2005; and from P62.93 million in 2009 to P183.10 million in 2011.

But by far the biggest jump in his net worth occurred during his stint as Cabinet secretary of Aquino. His net worth of P109.73 million in his 2011 SALN nearly doubled to P203.36 million in 2012. The latter amount includes an increase of Roxas’s assets by P86 million, or from P191.43 million in 2011 to P277.35 million in 2012.

For 2009, the year before he ran and lost the race for the vice presidency to Binay, Roxas’s declared net worth was P62.93 million — assets of P124.63 million (including real properties of P25.96 million and personal properties of P98.66 million), minus liabilities of P61.70 million.

He took a year-long leave of absence from public office but when he returned in 2011 to serve as President Aquino’s Transportation and Communication secretary, Roxas’s wealth also made a virtual comeback. For the year 2011, Roxas declared a net worth of P183.10 million — assets of P260.58 million (including P86.44 million in real properties and P174.14 million in personal properties) and liabilities of P77.47 million.

The next year, 2012, proved to be even brighter for Roxas, wealth-wise. This was when he reported his net worth at P203.35 million — P277.34 million in assets (including P81.24 million in real properties and P196.10 million in personal properties), and liabilities of P73.98 million.

But the year his wealth shone the brightest was in 2013, even as Roxas, by then the Interior and Local Government secretary, was swamped with work assisting typhoon, earthquake, and other victims of calamities, man-made and natural.

For the year 2013, Roxas reported his biggest net worth yet at P211.02 million — assets of P283.52 million (including real properties worth P81.24 million and personal properties of P202.27 million), and liabilities of P72.49 million. — PCIJ, May 2016
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For details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online