President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday explained that the P3-million increase in his net worth can be attributed to his unused campaign donation.
“Sobra iyan sa dumating na walang purpose ang pera, tapos hindi ko na malaman kung sino sino (ang nagbigay),” Duterte told reporters in Hong Kong. (Too many people donated and there was no more purpose for the money, and I didn’t know who gave it)
Duterte added that he could no longer track where the additional P3 million came from. Under campaign finance laws, unused campaign funds can be declared as income and is thus subject to tax.
“Hindi ko na malaman kung sino-sino (ang nagbigay). Iyan ang dineclare ko sa income (tax return),” he said. (I didn’t know who gave it, so I declared it as income)
At first, Duterte joked that the P3 million came from a certain “Vanessa.” He refused to identify who this woman is.
According to his latest statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), the president declared total assets less total liabilities of PHP27,428,862.44 (USD552,000) as of the end of 2016, or an increase of more than P3.3 million (14 percent) from the P24,080,094.04 he declared in June 2016.
Duterte’s total assets was valued at P28,428,862.44 (USD572,996) as of the end of 2016. However, he also declared total liabilities of P1 million due to a personal loan from Samuel Uy.
The increase in the president’s net worth is also partly due to the decrease in his liabilities. His personal loan from Uy decreased by P100,000 shrinking his liabilities down to P1 million from P1.1 million.
According to Duterte’s statement of contribution and expenditures (SOCE), he received P375 million in contributions (about USD7.5 million), a bulk of which came from big businessmen.
