How rich is the most powerful man in the Philippines?
If we are to rely merely on Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s official declaration in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), we can say that he is rich compared to the “average” Filipino but is nothing compared to the richest Filipinos in the Philippines.
According to his SALN, an official document required to be submitted by all Filipino public officials and employees, Noynoy Aquino’s net worth is around P55 million as of the end of 2010.
Net worth is defined as total assets less total liabilities. Noynoy Aquino’s assets — which include cash on hand and in bank, real properties, and personal and other properties — total around P55.22 million. He only has one liability: around P200,000 worth of taxes payable to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
A summary of his 2010 SALN is as follows.
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The bulk of his receivables are the proceeds from the sale of stocks he used to own in his family’s eight companies, including Central Azucarera de Tarlac which manages Hacienda Luisita.
His real properties consist of a residential lot and an agricultural land in Tarlac City, an agricultural land in Capas, Tarlac, a house and lot in Quezon City, and a commercial lot in San Juan City.
Assuming all these information are accurate and true, PNoy’s net worth is just average compared to the wealth of his Cabinet secretaries and other Filipino senators. This is actually peanuts when compared to the riches of Manny Villar or Manny Pacquiao.
But the bigger picture is that millions of Filipinos remain to be poor, with net worth amounting to not even a fraction of PNoy’s wealth. Thus, part of Pres. Noynoy Aquino’s goals should be to increase the net worth of the majority of Filipinos. That could very well be his legacy to the Philippines.
