Jinggoy building P120-M house?

MANILA, Philippines - Hours before Sen. Jinggoy Estrada cried foul over “selective justice” on the pork barrel scam came a news report on his alleged newest property: an estimated P120-million house in one of the country’s high-class subdivisions.

Social news network Rappler.com reported yesterday that Estrada is allegedly building the house in Wack Wack, Mandaluyong.

Rappler cited a source privy to Estrada’s expenses. The source revealed that the senator bought the 3,000-square meter lot in 2012.

Subdivision residents interviewed by Rappler said it was “common knowledge” among them that the property is owned by Estrada.

But in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth  (SALN) for 2012, where he declared a net worth of P193.6 million, Estrada did not mention the Wack Wack property.

Construction was ongoing until the second week of September but was stopped last week, Rappler said.

Records in Wack Wack’s barangay office showed that the lot along Wack Wack Road alone is estimated to cost between P210-P240 million, as the land in the high-end subdivision is said to be priced anywhere from P70,000 to P80,000 per square meter.

Rappler said it tried but failed to get Estrada’s side.

Documents examined by Rappler from the Mandaluyong Registry of Deeds also show that the property is not registered in Estrada’s name but in Verdant Forest Highlands Inc.

Rappler, however, said there are past links between the Estrada family and Verdant, which was described in a complaint affidavit in 2001 as a “thinly capitalized dummy corporation organized by the lawyers of Estrada’s father, then President Joseph Estrada, to house and conceal his beneficial ownership” of 551 Wack Wack Road also in Mandaluyong.

The older Estrada was later ousted from office amid plunder allegations.

The younger Estrada, for his part, has denied involvement  in the misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund of lawmakers, commonly known as pork barrel, and expressed willingness to face the plunder charges filed by the Department of Justice against him.