Rodrigo Duterte’s 386 P. Guevarra property

Remember that San Juan City address in the Bank of the Philippines (BPI) bank statement of presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte? Senator and vice presidential candidate Antonio Trillanes IV included 386 P. Guevarra Street in the alleged list of properties the Davao City mayor owned – this, on top of the bank accounts that supposedly contained millions of pesos.

We found that the amounts in the supposed bank accounts did not match what had been declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). 

We checked out the San Juan property used by Duterte and daughter Sarah as home address for their joint account at BPI Julia Vargas branch in Pasig and found that it wasn’t declared in Duterte’s current and past SALNS either.

A source had confirmed that Duterte had indeed bought a townhouse in San Juan when he was a congressman. He served as representative of Davao City’s 1st district from 1998 to 2001.

Duterte’s son Sebastian nicknamed Baste, came out and claimed ownership of the townhouse. In an Inquirer report, Baste said that Duterte bought the townhouse for him in 2001, when he was just 13 years old and was about to start schooling at San Beda.

The townhouse has a total floor area of 222 square meters, stands on a 107 square meter lot, and was bought from businessman Eduardo Bangayan, according to the Inquirer. It had a declared value of more than P1.5 million when purchased by Duterte.

When the property was purchased, Sebastian was still a minor (he turned 18 in 2006). His assets should have also been disclosed in Duterte’s SALN. The SALN guidelines say that officials should declare the assets of his/her spouse and children below 18 years old.

The guidelines, however, further specified: SALN declarations shall include the properties, liabilities, business interests, and financial connections “of the declarant, his/her spouse and unmarried children below 18 years of age living in his/her household.”

Though Sebastian was probably still being supported by his father from 2001 to 2005, he was living away and was not part of his father’s household then. This SALN guideline could very well be the reason why Duterte didn’t declare the P. Guevarra property in his list of assets. 

Is he off the hook, his critics are asking. – Reynaldo Santos Jr/Rappler.com