Category: Noynoy Watch

Duterte’s 2015 SALN: P14.8-M cash in bank, tops rivals in wealth growth

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By Malou Mangahas

SO HOW MUCH is he really worth?

According to his 2015 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth or SALN,
presidential frontrunner and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte has 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.

Duterte filed his SALN for 2015 early — on April 21, 2016, or nine days ahead of the April 30 deadline.

In contrast, until yesterday noon, Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ C. Binay, another candidate for president, had yet to file his SALN for 2015 with the Office of the Ombudsman. Meanwhile, there is a waiting period of 10 working days to secure the 2015 SALNs of fellow presidentiables Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor-Santiago – that is, if they have already submitted these. Former Interior and Local Governments Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II, though, will not have to file a SALN this time around, since he is no longer a government official.

Interest in Duterte’s SALNs has surged following allegations that he has bank accounts through which hundreds of millions of pesos have supposed passed through. For sure, certified bank records may be needed for anyone to prove or disprove such allegations. But what Duterte’s SALNs do show is a phenomenal growth rate over the last 19 years.

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.

The Davao City mayor’s net worth of P23.5 million for 2015 redounds to a 2,519 percent increase, or a phenomenal growth rate of 132.6 percent on average per year, over the last 19 years.

By comparison, Binay’s net worth grew from P2.9 million in 1989 to P60.20 million in his SALN for 2014, for a cumulative increase of 1,975 percent in 25 years, or an average of 79 per cent per year.

Roxas, the administration Liberal Party’s candidate for president, reported a net worth of P12.76 million in 1993, and grew this to P202.08 million in 2014. This results in a 1,483 percent growth in 21 years, or 70.61 percent on average per a year.

Defensor-Santiago, candidate for president of the People’s Reform Party, showed a modest uptick in her declared net worth — from P48.00 million in 1994 to P73.03 million in 2014, for a 52.14 percent growth in 20 years, or 2.6 percent annual average growth.

And then there is the case of Poe, presidential bet of the Galing at Puso slate, which is one of progressively declining wealth. Poe declared a net worth of P152.5 million in 2010, but this slipped steadily to P89.46 million in her SALN for 2014, for a net regression of 41.34 percent in four years, or negative 10.32 percent on average per year.

Although far from being “perfect” financial reporting instruments, SALNs often contain interesting information about a public official or candidate’s wealth, regardless of whether or not the official or candidate had been forthright about all the details.

For instance, in his latest SALN for 2015 that PCIJ obtained from the Office of the Ombudsman, Duterte said he also owned:

• P3 million flat in “investments”;
• P350,000 in household appliances and furniture;
• P300,000 in jewelry; and
• four pieces of residential real property worth only P480,000 by acquisition cost.

He said he acquired these lots, all located in Bago Aplaya, Davao City, between 1995 and 1996.

Also declared among his “personal properties” are two vehicles — a Toyota RAV 4 acquired in 1996 for supposedly P800,000, and a “Volks Sedan” acquired in 1978 supposedly for P40,000.

In a separate page, however, Duterte listed a second set of “assets, liabilities, and net worth” and additional properties “including those of the spouse and unmarried children below 18 years of age being in the declarant’s household.”

Duterte named his 11-year-old daughter by his second partner in this separate assets list.

On this list are five real properties. Duterte said three lots are located in Maa, Davao City, one house and lot in Matina, Davao City, all reportedly acquired from 1997 to 1998, and a second house and lot located in Buhangin, Davao City that he said he purchased in 2008.

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.

On this separate page, too, Duterte listed a “personal loan” of P1.2 million from a certain “Samuel Uy”.

In his SALN for 2014, Duterte had declared a net worth of P21 ,971,732.62, including combined real and personal properties of P22,971,732.62, and liabilities of only P1 million to a certain “Samuel Uy”.

In his 2015 SALN, Duterte declared his business interest in two entities — as incorporator since 1997 of Honda Cars, with business address at Catolico Street, General Santos City; and as incorporator since 2012 of Poeng Yue Foundation, Inc., with business address on San Pedro Street in Davao City.

As in his 2014 SALN, in his 2015 SALN Duterte listed having six relatives in the government service. They are:

• Son Paolo Z. Duterte, vice mayor of Davao City;
• Daughter-in-law January N. Duterte, councilor of Davao City;
• Brother Benjamin R. Duterte, his private secretary at the Davao City Mayor’s Office;
• Nephew Wilfrido D. Villarica, Administrative Officer 1, at the Davao City Council;
• Jean Villarica, wife of Wilfrido, Auxiliary Worker of Davao City’s Environment and Natural Resources Office; and
• “Balae” Agnes Reyes-Carpio, mother of the spouse of his daughter Sara, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals

Nineteen years ago, when he was a congressman from Davao City, Duterte had
declared owning seven real properties that he said he acquired for a combined cost of P603,700; and personal properties worth P3,250,092. The latter included, he said, “cash on hand/in bank” of only P189,245; cars and motorcycles worth P1,206,482; and “investments” of P1,556,250.

That same year, 1997, Duterte said he had “miscellaneous payables” amounting to P2,956,000.

Two years earlier in 1995, he said he invested a total of P1,556,250 in “Mister Donuts” outlets located in Ulas, Agado, P. Reyes, and Ecoland, all in Davao City.

Notably, like his net worth, Duterte’s “cash on hand/in bank” has charted an upward trek in the last two decades, save for one year.

In 1998, Duterte said he had P339,245 “cash on hand/in bank” and net worth of
P1,047,792 as of December that year.

In 1999, he declared exactly the same amount of “cash on hand/in bank”, but also a bigger net worth of P1,447,542.

In 2000, his “cash on hand/in bank” grew to P512,135, and his net worth, P1,766,722.

In 2002, it climbed to P889,441, and his net worth, P2,834,028.

In 2004, it jumped to P3,220,312, and his net worth, P7,024,899.

In 2005, it rose to P4,621,193, and his net worth, P8,425,780.

In 2006, it became P6,071,460, and his net worth, P8,650,627.

In 2007, he declared it at P7,079,199, and his net worth, P9,685,366.

In 2008, he put it at P7,514,124. This excludes what he declared to be P1,138,890 in premiums paid for educational plans; P1,305,953 in “private inheritance”; P454,500 in premiums paid for pre-need plans; P686,833 in time deposits; and P65,625 in stocks.

His declared net worth for 2008 was P15,315,925.08.

In 2009, the amount of Duterte’s “cash on hand/in bank” climbed to P9,164,204.32, and his net worth, P16,616,005.40.

In 2011, he put it at P11,155,123.12, and his net worth, P18,930,123.12.

In 2014, he declared it to be P13,846,732.62, and his net worth, P21,971,732.62.

In his latest SALN for 2015, Duterte said his “cash on hand/in bank” was all of P14,839,69.93. — With research by Vino Lucero and Davinci S. Maru, PCIJ, May 2016

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For details on the wealth of the candidates, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Top cities, top vectors of votes

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By Davinci S. Maru

CITIES ARE where all kinds of opportunities can be found – and, unsurprisingly, where a lot of voters in this country happen to be.

As of records from the 2013 elections, the top 50 vote-rich cities across the Philippines have as much as 13.9 million of the nation’s voters. That is about one fourth of the latest total number of registered voters (54.4 million), and a sizeable chunk that could give a crucial boost to the chances of any national candidate winning in the upcoming elections.

Yet another no-surprise is that 38 out of the 50 vote-rich cities are in Luzon, the biggest island group, while seven are in Mindanao and the remaining five in the Visayas.

Too, majority of the top 10 cities with the most number of registered voters are in migrant-magnet Metro Manila: Quezon City (first place at 1,083,915); City of Manila (third at 952,962), Caloocan City (fourth at 636,625); City of Makati (seventh at 399,726); City of Pasig (ninth at 354,542), and Taguig City (tenth at 325,498). Davao City (second at 967,944), Cebu City (fifth at 547,463), Zamboanga City (sixth at 405,601), and City of Antipolo (seventh at 391,688) make up the rest of the top 10.
2013 TOP 50

Some of the candidates for the country’s two highest posts have considerable ties to a few of these cities. For instance, Quezon City, under the leadership of Mayor Herbert Bautista, is a bailiwick of the Liberal Party (LP) administration coalition, which could give an edge to the tandem of Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II and Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo, LP candidates for president and vice president.

Presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban), meanwhile, remains to be a force to be reckoned with in Davao City where he has served as an elected official for more than two decades. (He is currently its mayor.)

Duterte’s running mate Alan Peter Cayetano, for his part, can probably count on significant support from Taguig City, where his wife Lani is the incumbent mayor. Cayetano, currently a senator, was once vice mayor of Taguig and also representative of the then lone district of Taguig and Pateros in Congress.

Of course, there is Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), whose family until recently controlled Makati City since 1986. Binay started his political career in Makati City when the late President Corazon Aquino appointed him as its officer-in-charge.

Binay’s wife Elenita and his son Jejomar Erwin or ‘Junjun’ had taken turns with him in occupying Makati’s mayoral post. Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Junjun Binay as Makati Mayor for grave misconduct and dishonesty. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, the Vice President’s younger daughter who is now on her last term as Makati’s representative in Congress, is set to run for mayor. That will pit her against her brother’s successor, Romulo ‘Kid’ Pena Jr., of the LP.

Aside from Makati, though, Binay had been counting on votes from Cebu, where the party dominated by the Garcia political clan had struck an alliance with UNA. Recently, however, the One Cebu Party declared its ties with UNA as no longer in effect. Instead, the party said it would be supporting Duterte’s quest for the presidency.
2010 TOP 50 (1)

Interestingly, the Top 50 vote-rich cities are considered rich in terms of assets and equity.

Based on the 2014 Annual Financial Report of the Commission Audit (COA), Makati City the highest equity among them, at P34 billion.

Equity is the difference between the local government unit’s total assets and liabilities.

Makati is followed by Quezon City with P31 billion, the City of Pasig with P20 billion, the City of Manila with P13 billion, and Zamboanga City with P10 billion. At sixth place is Cebu City with P7 billion, then Caloocan City with P6 billion, Marikina City with P4 billion, Calamba City with P4 billion and Cagayan De Oro City with P4 billion.

Essentially, the cities included in the vote-rich roster have stayed the same since 2007, although there have been some changes in the ranking. This is while the number of registered voters has continued to increase through the years.

2007 TOP 50

In the 2007 elections, there were 12,234,144 registered voters from the top 50 vote-rich cities. This figure increased by 10.8 percent in 2010 during the first nationwide automated election, with 13,555,685 people in these 50 cities registered as voters. But while the number of registered voters in the 50 top vote-rich cities went up again in 2013, the rise was a modest 2.8 percent, translating into 13,937,902. — PCIJ, May 2016
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For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Kamag-anak, Inc.: Power is family to 5 wannabe president

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By the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

VOTERS KEEN in assessing the fitness for office of the five candidates for President in the upcoming elections may want to look at the presidentiables’ political pedigree and blood relations.

The five, after all, have occupied elective and appointive posts from a minimum of five to a maximum of 24 years. They spring, too, from political families with short to long histories, or slight to strong pedigree.

In many parts of the country, elective power and position typically beget appointive power and positions. In the case of the current crop of presidential candidates, are we electing only the persons whose names are on the ballot or members of their family as well?

By their own admission in their respective Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) across the years, in small and large measure, power is family to the top candidates in next month’s balloting.

The picture varies, though. Some have as few as two while others have as many as eight relatives in the government service.

Here’s a rundown of the political history and family ties in the government of the five presidentiables:


VICE PRESIDENT JEJOMAR ‘JOJO’ CABAUATAN BINAY had served as mayor of Makati City for nearly 20 years — from 1986 to 1996, and again, from 2001-2010.
JEJOMAR BINAY

During this period and in the intervening years, he had also worked as chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority; and director of the Light Railway Transit Authority (1987, 1996-1998); director of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (1987), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (1987, 1990, 1991).

In his younger years as a lawyer, Binay had been a law professor and lecturer at the Philippine College of Commerce; St. Catherine’s School of Nursing and Midwifery; Philippine Women’s University; and St. Scholastica’s College.

He was a senior partner of the Binay, Cueva and Associates Law Office and had earlier worked as assistant attorney at the Deogracias T. Reyes Law Office; legal counsel of Manila Councilor Carlos Loyzaga; and claims examiner, Insular Life Assurance Company.

He is married to Dr. Elenita Sombillo Binay, who was elected Mayor of Makati City from 1998 to 2001, or during the three years that Binay could not run for the post.

The Binays have five children:

* Sen. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, who is married to Jose Benjamin Raymundo Angeles;
* Makati City 2nd District Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, who is married to Luis Jose Angel Nakpil Campos;
* Suspended Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin ‘Junjun’ Binay Jr., who was married to the late Kennedy Ann L. Binay;
* Marita Angeline Binay, and
* Joanna Marie Bianca Binay.

In his latest SALN, for 2014, Jejomar Binay declared having four children in the government service, including three holding elective posts: son Junjun and daughters Abigail and Nancy. Marita Angeline, meanwhile, holds the appointive post of head executive assistant, with rank of Director IV, in the Office of the Vice President.

SENATOR MIRIAM DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO has served as a trial court presiding judge, then Immigration commissioner, and Agrarian Reform secretary. She has been senator since 1997. Her third term in the Upper House will end this June.
MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO

In December 2011, she was the first Filipina and Asian to be elected to a nine-year tenure as judge of the International Criminal Court. But she later declined the post, citing as reason chronic fatigue, which eventually led to a diagnosis of lung cancer.

Santiago’s relatives provide her access to a network of politicians and bureaucrats. Her cousins, nephews, and a niece have served alternately as representatives of the third district of both Quezon City and Iloilo from the 12th to the 15th Congress (2001-2013). Her husband, lawyer Narciso Yap Santiago Jr., has also been appointed to various government offices.

Two of Santiago’s cousins and a sister have held key positions in the Bureau of Customs, the Commission on Audit, and the Commission on Higher Education.

In her SALN for 2014, Santiago said she has eight relatives in the government service.

The senator’s sister Nanalyn Defensor serves as her chief of staff, cousin Mary Grace Katigbak is Political Affairs Officer, and sister-in-law Chona Defensor is Director 1, at the Senate.

Her paternal first cousin Arthur Defensor Sr. is incumbent governor, and his son Arthur Jr. is the congressman of the third district of her home province of Iloilo.

Maternal cousin-in-law Estrellita Bito-onon Suansing is the congressman of the 1st District of Nueva Ecija.

Cousin-in-law Vivian Suansing is assistant director at the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

During the Arroyo administration, Santiago’s brother Benjamin P. Defensor Jr. was Air Force chief. Santiago’s husband Narciso Jr., meanwhile, was an undersecretary of the Interior and Local Government under both Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Santiagos had two sons Narciso III or “Archie” and Alexander Robert or “AR,” who died in a reported suicide in 2003.

On July 18, 2007, Senator Santiago herself swore into office son Archie as representative of the Alliance of Rural Concerns (ARC) party-list group, which won a seat in that year’s elections. This was even after ARC had withdrawn Archie’s nomination as its top nominee, for supposed “loss of confidence, dishonesty, unauthorized exercise of authority and gross violations of the group’s Constitution and by-laws.” ARC has focused its advocacy on the extension of the comprehensive agrarian reform program.

The Santiagos have adopted daughters, twins Megan and Molly.

RODRIGO “DIGONG’ ROA DUTERTE has dominated Davao City politics for nearly three decades now. He has served as its as mayor for two three-term cycles (1988-1998 and 2001-2010). He was its vice mayor from 2010—2013 and then mayor again from 2013 to the present.
RODRIGO DUTERTE

In 1998-2001, Duterte sat in Congress as representative of Davao City’s first district.

Duterte is separated from first wife Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman, with whom he has three children: Paolo, Sebastian, and Sara Duterte-Carpio, who was Davao City mayor from 2010 to 2013. A fourth child, Veronica, was born to second wife, Honeylet Avancena, a nurse by profession.

Duterte has two siblings: brother Benjamin and sister Jocelyn.

In his SALN for 2014, Duterte listed six relatives in the government service. They include son Paolo who is Davao City vice mayor; brother Benjamin who is his “private secretary”; nephew Wilfrido Villarica, Administration Officer I of Davao City; daughter-in-law January Duterte, councilor/barangay captain of Catalunan Grande in Davao City; niece-in-law Jean Villarica, “auxiliary worker” of the CENRO (City Environment and Natural Resources Office); and co-parent-in-law Agnes Reyes-Carpio, a Court of Appeals Justice.

SENATOR MARY GRACE POE-LLAMANZARES has the shortest stint in public service among the presidentiables — as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) from 2010 to 2012, and as senator since June 2013.

GRACE POE
Poe has spent longer years working in the private sector. In 1995, she worked as a preschool teacher at a Philippine “Montessori education-style school,” and in 1998, as procurement officer at the United States Geological Survey. In 2005, she was named vice president and treasurer of FPJ Productions, the company of her father, popular action movie star Fernando Poe Jr., who died in December 2004.

In her SALN for 2014, Poe declared having two relatives in the government: cousin Lawrence Cruz, a PAO (Public Affairs Officer) III at the Senate, and cousin-in-law Anna Camille Sevilla, a Director IV at the Senate.

MANUEL ‘MAR’ ARANETA ROXAS II has served three presidents — as Trade and Industry Secretary of Joseph Estrada (1998-2000) and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001-2003), and as Secretary of Transportation and Communication (2011-2012) and Interior and Local Government Secretary of Benigno S. Aquino III (2012-October 2015).

MAR ROXAS
In the 2004 elections, Mar Roxas emerged No. 1 among the senatorial candidates, garnering 19 million votes. He ran as Aquino’s running mate in 2010, but lost to Jejomar Binay.

The eldest son of the late Senate president Gerardo Manuel de Leon Roxas and Judith Araneta Roxas, Roxas entered politics only in 1993, after the death of his younger brother Gerardo Jr. or ‘Dinggoy,’ then Representative of the 1st District of Capiz. Roxas also has a sister, Maria Lourdes Roxas Ojeda.

He is now married to television anchor Korina Sanchez. He has a son, Paolo Gerardo Z. Roxas, by a former girlfriend, 1971 Miss Young International Philippines Maricar Zaldarriaga.

Mar Roxas is the grandson of Manuel Roxas, who had served as the third and last president of the Philippine Commonwealth Republic from May 28, 1946 to July 4, 1946 as a Nacionalista Party member, and as the first president of the Third Republic from July 4, 1946 to April 15, 1948 as a Liberal Party member.

On his mother’s side, Mar Roxas is the grandson of J. Amado Araneta and nephew of Jorge Araneta, and Maria Lourdes Araneta.

J. Amado Araneta and Jorge Araneta have donated significant sums to Mar Roxas’s campaigns in elections past and present.

In his SALN for 2014, Roxas declared having an uncle, a cousin, and a niece in the government service.

President Aquino appointed Roxas’s uncle Valentin Araneta as member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2014, a post that has a fixed six-year term. Earlier, Araneta had been president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation.

A first cousin of Mar Roxas, Maria Margarita Fores, meanwhile, was elected in January 2014 as one of the nine new Governors of the Philippine Red Cross, which receives some donations from the government but is not a state agency. Nevertheless, Roxas listed her among his relatives in the government service. Fores, who owns and runs the CIBO chain of restaurants and a culinary school, has become the caterer of choice of several Philippine presidents for big receptions at Malacanang Palace.

Roxas also has a niece, Pia Jane Trillanes, working as a Field Operator at the Department of Social Welfare and Development. DSWD is headed by Secretary Corazon ‘Dinky’ Soliman, a stalwart of the administration Liberal Party, which remains largely a veritable Roxas family heirloom. — PCIJ, April 2016
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For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Votes by the pint: 17 provinces vote poor since 2004 elections

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By Vino Lucero

IN A tightly contested election, every vote matters, and even a vote-poor province could mean success or defeat for a national candidate.

But that momentary attention may not mean a boost to the province’s revenues after the polls. In fact, among the consistent placers in the list of 20 provinces with the least number of registered voters from 2004 to 2016, only one has been classified as second-class in terms of income. The rest ranked third-class and below.

First-class provinces have an average annual income of more than P450 million, while provinces in the second-class cluster earn P360 million or more but less than P450 million.

Third-class provinces have an income average of P270 million or more but less than P360 million; fourth- class with P180 million or more but less than P270 million; fifth-class with P90 million or more but less than P180 million; and sixth-class with less than P90 million.

PCIJ curated the Commission on Elections’ voter-statistics data to come up with a list of 20 provinces with the least number of registered voters from 2004 to 2016.

Seventeen were consistently on the list: Batanes, Siquijor, Camiguin, Guimaras, Quirino, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Biliran, Aurora, Kalinga, Marinduque, Tawi-Tawi, Catanduanes, Abra, Romblon, Basilan, and Nueva Vizcaya.

Of these, three provinces were fifth-class in income: Batanes, Camiguin, and Siquijor.

Four – Mountain Province, Guimaras, Biliran, and Marinduque – apparently made just enough to make it to fourth-class level.

The rest were classified under the third income class, except for Nueva Vizcaya, which was considered second-class in the 2015 listing of Bureau of Local Government Finance.

Unsurprisingly, Batanes has been on top of the list of provinces with the least number of registered voters since 2004. During that year, it had only around 8,800.

Batanes finally crossed the 10,000-mark in total number of registered voters only in 2010. Today it has around 11,000.

For the upcoming elections, 12 provinces in the vote-poor roster are from Luzon (Batanes, Apayao, Quirino, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Aurora, Kalinga, Marinduque, Catanduanes, Abra, Romblon, and Nueva Vizcaya); three are from the Visayas (Siquijor, Guimaras, and Biliran), and five are from Mindanao (Camiguin, Dinagat Islands, Tawi-Tawi, Davao Occidental, and Basilan).

The list has had more provinces from Luzon through the years. In 2004, 13 of the provinces in the vote-poor tally were also from Luzon (Batanes, Apayao, Quirino, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Aurora, Kalinga, Marinduque, Catanduanes, Abra, Romblon, Occidental Mindoro, and Nueva Vizcaya), while four were from the Visayas (Siquijor, Guimaras, Biliran, and Southern Leyte), and three from Mindanao (Camiguin, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan).

Little movement can be seen in the roster, with even the same provinces appearing on it in 2007 and 2010.

In 2007, though, Dinagat Islands debuted on the list at fifth place, edging out Southern Leyte. But then Dinagat was declared a province only in 2006, by virtue of Republic Act No. 9355.

Camiguin also jumped from fourth place during the previous election to second place in 2007.

Apayao, meanwhile, has consistently made it to the magic five except in 2013 due to unavailability of data for the province in that election year. With the absence of Apayao on the list, Sulu managed to snatch the last spot on the bottom 20 in 2013.

Occidental Mindoro, Davao Occidental, and Southern Leyte have also been part of the list in non-consecutive instances. — PCIJ, April 2016

For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online.

2004 Bottom 20 2007 Bottom 20 2010 Bottom 20 2013 Bottom 20 2016 Bottom 20

Buckets of votes: 20 provinces on top list since 2004 elections

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By Vino Lucero

IN ORDER TO WIN ELECTIONS, national candidates need to court and earn votes in bulk.

A candidate can do so by asking for endorsement from formation leaders and sectoral representatives, and even from celebrities and matinee idols.

Or he or she can opt to do a more personal approach and hie off to vote-rich provinces, shake hands, talk to massive local audiences, and rally the voters to shade that oval before his or her name on the ballot.

PCIJ curated Commission on Elections voter statistics data from 2004 to 2016, and created a list of the top 20 provinces in terms of registered voters per election year during that period.

From 2004 to 2016, the same 18 have been consistently on the list: Cebu, Cavite, Negros Occidental, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Laguna, Davao del Sur, Iloilo, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Leyte, Zamboanga del Sur, Quezon, Camarines Sur, Isabela, and Misamis Oriental.

Cebu has also consistently held the top spot since 2004. Cavite, meanwhile, rose from fifth in 2004 to fourth in 2007, and then landed on the second rung in 2010. It has been there since. Leyte (13th), Isabela (17th), and Misamis Oriental (18th) also maintained their ranking from 2004 up to the present.

Cebu’s voter population increased by almost half a million in less than a decade – from 2,020,606 in 2004 to 2,508,189 in 2013 – ensuring its continuous reign in the vote-rich listing. Cavite voters also increased in huge margins, from 1,323,653 in 2004 to almost 1.8 million in 2013.

Interestingly, the same provinces have tightly contested the last two slots in the top 20 list through the years: South Cotabato (19th most vote-rich province in 2004, 20th in 2010); Bohol (20th in 2004 and 19th in 2007, 2013, and 2016); Negros Oriental (20th in 2007, 2013, and 2016); and Bukidnon (19th in 2010).

All the names ranked in the top 20 since 2004 have first-class income classification, according to the 2015 listing of the Bureau of Local Government Finance.

Provinces recorded with first-class income get an average annual income of P450 million or more from “own-sourced revenue efforts,” according to Department of Finance’s Order No. 23-08.

Yet while Cebu has been Number One on the list since 2004, more than half of the top 20 vote-rich provinces have been from Luzon in the past 12 years.

The 2016 vote-rich roster, for instance, has 11 provinces from Luzon (Cavite, Pangasinan, Laguna, Bulacan, Batangas, Rizal, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Isabela), six from the Visayas (Cebu, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Leyte, Bohol, and Negros Oriental), and three from Mindanao (Davao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, and Misamis Oriental).

In 2004, 11 of the top 20 vote-rich provinces were also from Luzon (Bulacan, Pangasinan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Isabela), while five were from the Visayas (Cebu, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Leyte, and Bohol), and four from Mindanao (Davao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, Misamis Oriental, and South Cotabato).

Indeed, while Cebu and Negros Occidental managed to keep the top two seats on the list in 2007, Luzon provinces still dominated the roster. The provinces included in the 2004 Top 20 vote-rich also made a reappearance in 2007, with the exception of South Cotabato. Negros Oriental snatched the vacated spot, which was the bottom of the list.

By 2010, Negros Occidental had slipped from second to fourth in the vote-rich provinces roster, and Cavite had emerged in second place. Bohol was dropped from the top 20, Bukidnon got the 19th spot, and South Cotabato re-entered to get the last seat on the list. – PCIJ, April 2016

2004 Top 20

2007 Top 20

2010 Top 20

2013 Top 20

2016 Top 20