The rising SALN
and in Ilokano in the evening). And talk all day about politics with Monching (Mitra), who, like Ninoy, was a reporter before getting elected to the Senate.
Those who covered the Cory campaign in 1986 knew what the house looked like. It is an ordinary house, sitting on an ordinary cut of land, with zero artifice. In 1986, while covering the Cory campaign, you could not but compare Ninoy and Cory’s house with the mansions of the Marcos cronies who, after living for decades in entresuwelos, couldn’t contain their urges to show off.
Early on, Pnoy was taught by his parents the dear lesson that not everything in life was about material possession.
Those who did projects from the CDF funds of President Aquino when he was at the House of Representatives and the Senate also had good things to say. The gist was this: he did not demand anything. The translation of that is this: there was no commission asked, unlike 90 percent of lawmakers who asked for excessive “tongpats” on their CDF.
When a lawmaker does not demand from his CDF, that is, in the world of public works contractors, the highest form of integrity.
The truth is even some of the former Liberal Party lawmakers in the official family of President Aquino were classic “commissioners” with their CDF. One was called “40 percent” by contractors in his former congressional district for demanding a 40 percent “tongpats” from his farm-to-market road allocations. He is trying to take the path of “daang matuwid” now, but he is probably spending sleepless nights plotting and scheming on how to get commissions without getting caught. Old habits die hard.
Again, any attempt to question the president on unexplained wealth is just like beating up a straw man. It would be an inquisition to nowhere.
There is probably one area where President Aquino is shading the truth on his personal wealth - his campaign contributions in 2010. The usual practice is that the big-time contributors (the respectable ones) seek oneon-one meetings with the strongest presidential candidate weeks or days before election day.
The shady characters donate through intermediaries. And they carry bags of cash, no checks please.
One popular presidential candidate before Pnoy was so inundated with cash that the candidate stopped receiving contributions one week before election day. The popular candidate just did not have enough vaults at his sprawling house to stash away the excess funds.
The business community calls another former president “the first Filipino trillionaire” and this is probably true. The seed money for that immense wealth was excess money from many successful political campaigns.
President Aquino got his fair share of campaign contributions and people believe that his campaign group did not reveal everything to the Commission on Elections.
mvronq@yahoo.com