• Home
  • About me
  • My Privacy Policy

Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Congressman JV Ejercito under declares his California property

May 7, 2013

Share:
Twitter0
Facebook0
LinkedIn0
Pinterest0

Exclusive

By Raïssa Robles

Unlike Senators Loren Legarda and Manny Villar, senatorial candidate JV (Joseph Victor) Ejercito has consistently disclosed his California property, but always at a lower price than what he paid for it.

On April 14, 2000, JV Ejercito bought a single-storey, two-bedroom house in Redwood City, San Mateo County, California for US$609,500. He was not a politician then but a prominent businessman, mainly because of his affiliation by blood to Joseph Estrada, the sitting Philippine president at that time. JV Ejercito first disclosed his Redwood City home in 2001 when he became mayor of San Juan City.

Below are the documents on JV Ejercito’s property given to me by a Fil-Am lawyer named “Steve” who I will describe as one of the millions of Filipinos who migrated overseas, disgusted and disappointed with the never-ending corruption and lack of progress and equity in the Philippines.

In the case of Congressman JV Ejercito, he consistently disclosed his Redwood City real estate in his SALNs throughout the years he was mayor and congressman. But always, he stated his purchase price at P22,5000,000 – or lower by P2.5 million than what property records say he had paid for it.

For a long while, I could not verify whether JV Ejercito had declared his Redwood property in his SALN because the House of Representatives had blocked total media access to the SALNs until the House had issued rules for getting them. Which the House never did. And, I suspect, never intended to do in the first place.

Fortunately, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism uploaded JV Ejercito’s SALNs on its website recently when PCIJ did a story linking Ejercito to offshore accounts.

It was only then I was able to find out that JV Ejercito did declare his property.

But I could not understand why his declared acquisition cost of P22,5000,000 was P2,554,329.80 lower than the listed US dollar purchase price of US$609,500. Because in April 2000 when he bought the property, the forex rate was P41.1884 to the dollar.

JV Ejercito is a businessman by profession and we can safely assume he knows how to calculate forex. Using the Philippine Central Bank’s average forex rate for April 2000, his purchase price of US$609,500 would be roughly equivalent to P25,104,329.80.

This makes his disclosed acquisition cost of P22,550,000.00 lower by P2,554,329.80 than the listed US dollar purchase price:

I had a difficult time chasing Congressman  JV Ejercito for his side on the issue. No one was in his office in Congress.

While trying to reach him, I researched his property some more and found the following pictures of his bedroom, bathroom, dining room, living room and kitchen on the real estate website Zillow:

Finally, I was able to reach Congressman JV Ejercito through – of all places – the social networking site Twitter. I tweeted a question, asking him why it seems the price disclosed on his SALNs was consistently lower than what he had paid.

JV Ejercito initially replied:

I asked him again. He tweeted back:

At that time, he was due to guest on TV. His final tweet to me was:

To those wondering why I’m persisting in writing about SALNs of high government officials, it is because the filing of SALNs is one very important duty of a government official or employee. It is enshrined in our 1987 Constitution and in our laws. It is a tool to help keep those in government from going over to the dark side.

Perhaps lawmakers will take their SALNs more seriously if we, the citizens and the governed, constantly look at them.

UPDATE: May 17, 2013, 2;30 PM

A commenter named “Drill Down” posted the following remark below:

valuing us property in peso could be quite tricky because we don’t really know when the us dollar was acquired.

imo, foreign properties and accounts should be listed in the currency of the foreign country in the saln. makes it self-explanatory.

My comment:

That could run into problems because of our law on the secrecy of foreign currency accounts.

In any case, I did some rough calculations. Let’s assume that  P22,5000,000 was the correct peso equivalent for US$609,500. To get the exchange rate that was used, I divided P22,500,000 by US$609,500. That gave me a foreign exchange rate of P36.91 to the US dollar.

Then I looked at the BSP website to see when the forex was around that amount. That was in 1997 when JV Ejercito was 28 years old, since he was born on December 26, 1969. Pls. see for yourself.

However, notice – and this I forgot to mention – that Ejercito did not pay the full amount in cash. He took out a loan with Fidelity National Title Co., which he continues to pay to this day – based on his SALNs. So the exchange rate he used was not dependent on when he obtained the dollars.

In any case, you’re right, “Drill Down“. The senators and congressmen and Civil Service Commission should all come together and agree how to disclose real property located abroad.

__________________________________________________________

Related Stories:

Sen. Manny and Cynthia Villar own 2 California properties; senator’s SALN does not list them

Supreme Court justices, military & police top brass should disclose their SALNs to the public 

Dear Senator Loren Legarda, how many SALNs did you file for the year 2011?

A third proof that my copy of Senator Legarda’s SALN is genuine

 

Comments

  1. lifeinsuranceph says

    May 9, 2013 at 2:17 PM

    There are several valid reasons for the possible undervaluation:

    1. Perhaps JV got a discount from the actual listed price. A 10% discount is not out of this world, if he paid in cash.

    2. Exchange rates are not fixed. He might have gone to a favorite dealer that he gave him such a favorable exchange rate in consideration for something else?

    In either case, the point of the matter is, did JV pay an income tax of at least 10.5M in the years prior to purchasing the property? If he paid the right income tax, he would have to earn P32.5M before tax, and pay taxes amounting to P10.5M.

    Did he do so? If not, where did he get the money to pay for said property?

    • curveball says

      May 9, 2013 at 3:47 PM

      ang hirap pala ng pwesto ni jv dahil sa “mahiwagang property” na ito.

      kung sabihin nya na binili nya sa sarili nya pera:

      saan galing ang pera na ito?

      nagbayad ba sya ng kaukulang buwis?

      pakisagot nga po… JV?

      at ang tatapang nyo sabihin na makatao kayo?
      na malinis ang hangarin nyo maglingkod sa bayan?
      ayan nga at ginugulangan nyo ang gobyerno.
      at niloloko nyo ang tao

  2. kalahari says

    May 8, 2013 at 12:18 PM

    Aside from the US$609,500 that jv shelled out for a property in Redwood City in April, 2000, when he was still a prominent businessman, the PCIJ, through rappler.com, disclosed that jv has a secret bank accounts in the British Virgin Island under a company called Ice Bell Properties Ltd, incorporated in July, 1999.

    JV is the sole director of said company which is still active as of April 2, 2013.

    Are jv’s income tax returns for 1999 and 2000 show so much wealth that could justify the huge investments abroad?

    Jv’s net worth per his SALN grows steadily from P53.3M in 2001 to P64M in 2009.

    Erap was the president then and there were rumors of sackful of cash reaching his San Juan residence allegedly from jueteng payola only, not counting from other sources.

    Like father, like son.

  3. leona says

    May 8, 2013 at 7:54 AM

    FIVE DAYS TO GO! .. be FROGMATIC or not!

    …or to be smartmatic .

    ‘Facing another day in life means facing another challenge and another experience. Be unafraid as you take another step today. Because even how stony our path could be,

    God makes sure that at the end of our journey everything will be okay.’ Good morning!

  4. sdramos says

    May 8, 2013 at 2:06 AM

    quote: However, notice – and this I forgot to mention – that Ejercito did not pay the full amount in cash. He took out a loan with Fidelity National Title Co., which he continues to pay to this day – based on his SALNs.- unquote

    Hmmm, i think you meant they took a loan from World Savings (that’s the lender) – where as Fidelity National Title Co. is the title Company who prepares all the necessary documents like escrows, searching land titles, making sure that all docs are correct, etc. And most likely since World Savings have folded up, this bank must be own by another big/giant banks now and that’s whom JV is paying their loan.

    Those photos that’s in Zillow.com, personally I wouldn’t be putting up those photos if I were not selling the house hence, this could be either those are the previous owner’s furniture and appliances OR/UNLESS – JV once had in time put the property On Sale and the sale didn’t go thru.

    Nevertheless, this expose surely is a wake-up call for these political candidates or sitting politician, to be true and transparent.

    More power to you Ms. Raisa!

    • raissa says

      May 8, 2013 at 11:36 AM

      Thank you for your observations.

      Perhaps the photos were placed by the former owner BEFORE JV Ejercito bought the house?

      I stand corrected on who the lender is.

« Older Comments
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist Then they came fof the Trade Unionists, and I did not out speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me— And there was no one left to speak for me. —Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

Subscribe to raissarobles.com

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from raissarobles.com:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

This blog uses MailChimp as a mass mailing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to MailChimp but only for processing. Learn more about MailChimp's privacy practices here.

Christopher “Bong” Go is a billionaire – Duterte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NmX1Px57cI

Find more of my articles by typing here:

My Stories (2009 – Present)

Cyber-Tambayan on Twitter:

Tweets by raissawriter

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT