Sen. Loren Legarda Accused of Hiding Wealth in New York

Senator Loren Legarda allegedly failed to declare as part of her assets a posh condominium unit on Park Avenue in New York City for four years, and did so only in 2011 just before she and the other senators convened as an impeachment court to try then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

 

 

Businessman Louis Biraogo, a self-styled public interest advocate, made the revelation on Thursday at a hastily called press conference, where he accused Legarda of being “as guilty” as the impeached Corona for not declaring all her assets in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Biraogo also accused Legarda of trying to hide her ownership of a multimillion peso mansion at No. 40 Cambridge Circle in the exclusive Forbes Park in Makati City, registered under Loren Legarda and Associates Inc. (LLAI), and of opting to declare her old family home in Malabon City as her official residence.

“I have the smoking gun needed to prove that Legarda does not deserve to stay a minute longer as a senator of the land,” Biraogo said, presenting before the media copies of the documents he said he obtained “just by searching Google,” and with the help of lawyer friends.

Biraogo said the documents proved that the reelectionist senator, who is leading in most surveys in the midterm elections, paid the “princely price” of $700,000 (about P36 million based on the 2006 exchange rate) for the condo unit at 77 Park Avenue.

He described the location as a “very expensive area in New York City where the Rockefellers and Trumps also have properties.”

Documents provided by Biraogo showed that Legarda bought the 708-square foot single-residential condominium unit 10-B from a certain Frank Feinberg of Wall Street, Seattle, Washington, on May 9, 2006, for $700,000.

But the SALN she filed in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 did not include the lot under her real property assets.

In all four filings, an item in Annex A for real, personal and other property showed her “equity in real property (co-owned with brothers, etc.)” of P7.175 million.

In 2011, however, an item under “Real Property-USA,” appeared in her SALN with the acquisition cost of P28.7 million.

Biraogo said if this was the same Park Avenue property, then Legarda might have undervalued the condominium unit by using the 2011 exchange rate, instead of the 2006 rate.

“Using the peso-exchange rate in 2011 instead of the prevailing rate in 2006 may be another clue that Legarda was already frazzled, dazed and confused even, when she declared that acquisition cost of P27,800,000 (sic),” he said in a press statement.

“What made Legarda declare a piece of US property in her 2011 SALN? Was it because she became very, very afraid that she would be in the same boat as Corona—that her hidden condo unit at 77 Park Avenue would be found out?” Biraogo said.

“Let’s not forget that she filed her 2011 SALN at about the time when the impeachment trial of Corona was already at fever pitch,” he said.

Responding to Legarda’s defense that she listed the US property under Annex A of her SALN in 2007, Biraogo said this was not true.

‘Nowhere’

“Annex A is the very instrument of Senator Legarda’s deceit and her circumvention of the strict SALN requirement that all properties must be declared as to their location, acquisition cost and fair market value,” he said.

“Where in Legarda’s SALNs from 2007 to 2011, or in any of their annexes can the words #77 Park Avenue, NYC, be found? The answer is ‘NOWHERE’ because Legarda has never declared the same in the strict manner prescribed by the law.”

At the press conference, Biraogo said he was not singling out Legarda. “It so happened that we only have evidence against her. If we get evidence against other candidates, we will run after them, too.”

He acknowledged that he was connected to a failed movement to convince former Vice President Noli de Castro to run for president in the 2004 elections, but said the public should not jump to conclusions.

“How can there be any connections when Noli has terminated his political career already? And if Noli de Castro is doing this out of vendetta, he should have done it long ago,” Biraogo said.

‘Citizen Barok’

Biraogo, 52, said he has a trucking business, T. Biraogo Trucking Corp. based in Biñan, Laguna province, and also engages in the buy-and-sell business. He heads a newly formed “public interest advocacy group” called Citizen Barok that “keeps a watchful eye on government.”

He said he would file graft and corruption, money laundering and perjury charges against Legarda in the Ombudsman to make her accountable for her nondisclosure of the condo unit in the US and a mansion at Forbes Park in Makati.

“Legarda’s propensity to have properties in the neighborhoods of the ultra-rich is also reflected in her being a resident of a mansion at No. 40 Cambridge Circle in Forbes Park, Makati,” he said.

He cited a lifestyle article written by Joanne Rae Ramirez, in which Legarda purportedly confirmed her ownership of the Forbes Park mansion and described it as her “dream home.”

PR firm

“But on paper, the Forbes mansion is owned by Legarda’s PR firm Loren Legarda and Associates Inc. (LLAI), a company which has no real assets, income or known activities related to PR.

“But is it really owned by LLAI?” asked Biraogo. “Loren Legarda owns 99 percent of LLAI, so she is for all intent and purposes the owner of the mansion at No. 40 Cambridge Circle, Forbes Park. Has she declared ownership of the Forbes mansion? Nope,” Biraogo said.

He said LLAI may prove to be Legarda’s own version of the Basa-Guidote Enterprise used by impeached Chief Justice Corona to defend questionable acquisition of properties.

“Will Loren also call on her father and two brothers to testify to save her?” the businessman asked.

Records showed that as early as 2006, LLAI was the registered owner of the mansion in Forbes Park, Biraogo said.

But even though LLAI indicated its ownership of the property in its 2006 tax declaration, Legarda acquired it as early as 2002, he said.

Despite taking actual residence in Forbes Park, Biraogo said Legarda continued to use her family home as her official residence at 48 Dunwoody Street, University Hills, Malabon City.

Cases at SC

Biraogo said he had been a public interest advocate since 1984 when, as a sophomore student at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, where he finished a philosophy degree, he sued then UP President Edgardo Angara all the way to the Supreme Court for hiking tuition and other fees.

He said he filed another suit in the Supreme Court in December 1985 questioning the validity of the snap presidential elections.

Biraogo said he also questioned the election of aliens to Congress (Biraogo vs Nograles), the power of the House of Representatives to propose amendments to the Constitution independently of the Senate (Biraogo vs House of Representatives) and the inaction of the government on the Philippine claim to Sabah (Biraogo vs Del Rosario, G.R. No. 206323), among others.

He said he was also a lead petitioner in the court fight against the anticybercrime law, which Congress passed in 2012.

Biraogo also headed the Kabayan for President Movement.

By DJ Yap, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Ex-Zambales Governor, Priest in Near Fistfight

OLONGAPO CITY—A leader of Zambales’ Magsaysay clan almost came to blows with a priest during an election forum organized by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) on Saturday for candidates in this city and in the province’s first congressional district.

Former Zambales Gov. Vicente Magsaysay confronted Fr. John Mara onstage at the city’s Rizal Triangle when the priest took away the microphone from his grandson, first district congressional candidate Jesus Vicente “Jobo” Magsaysay II, in the middle of a speech.

Magsaysay’s supporters joined the former governor onstage, although some tried to restrain him.

At one point during the commotion, Magsaysay lunged at Mara but he restrained himself while the audience jeered.

The PPCRV said it asked monitors of the forum to turn off the microphones when candidates ventured into “character assassinations.”

PPCRV officials asked Mara to cut off Jobo, son of senatorial candidate and outgoing Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, when he declared that he planned to investigate the supposed debts of the local government-run power distribution department should he be elected on May 13.

Organizers said they also turned off the microphone when vice mayoral candidate Brian Gordon’s speech “became too personal.”

Jobo is running against Olongapo Mayor James Gordon Jr., Brian’s uncle, and former Subic Mayor Jeffrey Khonghun.

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Jobo said PPCRV officials explained to him that he was cut off not because of what he was saying but because they were concerned about the unruly crowd.

“By that time, they could not control the crowd anymore and they were concerned [that a fight might break out between the candidates’ supporters],” he said.

Jobo said his grandfather, who is not running for any position, reacted to defend him because he misconstrued a gesture made onstage by Mayor Gordon, which appeared to order PPCRV to shut off his microphone.

The crowd was already agitated because of a speech made earlier by Brian, son of senatorial candidate Richard Gordon. Brian had been critical of Mayor Gordon and his aunt, Anne Marie, a mayoral candidate, and declared onstage that he was running “so that people [would] know that there is still a Gordon who is straight.”

The audience continued to jeer when Anne Marie, Mayor Gordon and Jobo spoke onstage. At one point, the supporters of Khonghun and Jobo walked out of the forum.

Mayor Gordon used the incident to attack the Magsaysay family, a rival of the Gordons.

In a statement, the mayor said: “The desperation of our political opponents is very clear. They have resorted to intimidation, harassment and bullying.”

Brian, however, endorsed the candidacy of Jobo’s mother, Mitos, who was in the forum. Mitos and Brian’s father, Richard, are running for senator under the United Nationalist Alliance.

Mitos, in 2004, beat Richard’s wife, Kate, in Zambales’ congressional race.

In this year’s election, one of Brian’s three opponents in the vice mayoral race is Mitos’ son, Vicente II or Vic-Vic.

Brian is running with his cousin, James “Bugsy” de los Reyes, who is seeking the mayoral seat against their aunt, Anne Marie, and Vice Mayor Rolen Paulino.

  

Robert Gonzaga, Philippine Daily Inquirer

142 Kilos of Marijuana Found on Bus

The police on Sunday seized 142 kilos of marijuana valued at over P700,000 after the drugs were discovered by accident at a bus station on Edsa, Quezon City.

The dried marijuana bricks which had been packed into six large boxes were addressed to Ma. Dolores Pakay and Renato Peralta, said Inspector Manuel Laderas, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Kamuning traffic sector head.

According to him, the drugs were discovered at 9 a.m. after one of the boxes fell apart as it was  being unloaded from a Victory Liner bus that had just arrived from Tabuk City in Kalinga province.

“Several dried leaves fell [from] the box which made the bus terminal personnel suspicious. They discovered the marijuana bricks when they opened the boxes,” the traffic sector chief told the Inquirer, adding that the cargo had not been brought  to Metro Manila by a bus passenger.

 

Last minute addition

According to Victory bus dispatcher Henry Marpa, the six boxes were loaded onto the bus shortly as it was leaving the Victory Liner terminal in Kalinga.

He said that the bus conductor was asked by a man, who had introduced himself as an employee of a shipping company in Tabuk City, to bring the boxes to Manila where these would be picked up by one of the persons whose names were written on the boxes. The man was charged a fee of P200 to have the cargo transported, Marpa added.

After authorities were informed about the find, a police team was sent to the bus terminal at the corner of Edsa and East Avenue where for several hours, its members waited for anyone to claim the boxes. However, no one came to pick up the drugs, the QCPD police official said.

Senior Insp. Robert Razon, head of the QCPD District Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group, said it was likely that the names on the boxes were fictitious. He said that two months ago, the same modus operandi was used to transport marijuana on a Metro Manila-bound bus.

Same modus operandi

“The cargo of marijuana also came from Northern Luzon. The boxes were also marked with the name of the consignee which was fictitious,” Razon told the Inquirer, adding that marijuana dealers often transported their wares on passenger buses.

He said that sometimes, the illegal drug which sells at P5,000 per kilo goes undetected by terminal employees.

“The bus companies cannot be held criminally liable because its employees can always say that they did not know about the illegal cargo. But they have a responsibility to make sure that their passengers are safe by avoiding accepting cargo which has not been properly inspected,” he added.

Razon said that an investigation was underway to determine the group behind the transport of the illegal cargo.

By Jeannette I. Andrade / Philippine Daily Inquirer