The prosperous life
of Prospero Nograles

Our latest report looks at the data enrolled in documents that Speaker Prospero Nograles himself had submitted – his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) from 1995 to 2008, or across a span of nearly 14 years. The 2009 SALN of Nograles is not yet available even as the deadline for submission had lapsed last April 30.

But by his admission in his SALNs, Nograles has grown his wealth by over 10-fold since he first served as congressman from Davao City – his P6.5-million net worth in 1995 has risen to P88.3 million in 2008. This happened despite another trend evident in his SALN – he has also increased by over 10 times his “loans and other payables” portfolio during the same period.

The parallel meteoric rise in Nograles’s wealth and loan portfolio simply defies logic. It suggests that perhaps he has grown wealthy at a rate faster than he has acknowledged in his SALNs.

More than the 10 real estate properties enrolled in his SALNs, the pivot of Nograles’s wealth are clearly his “personal and other properties” that as of December 2007 included P26 million in undisclosed “investments”, “cash on hand” of P18.2 million, and “jewelries” worth P13 million.

A sidebar accompanying this report, “A different Legacy“, looks at the curious involvement of Nograles in the Legacy Group of Companies. The outgoing Speaker lost money after investing in at least one of the twelve banks under the collapsed corporation.