Health Beat
Tomas: My worth is open to public
ASKED by critics about how he could afford trips to the US and costly cancer treatment, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday said that apart from his salary as mayor, he has other sources of income, mostly from private businesses.
He invited anyone interested to look at his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) for the exact figures.
“That’s a matter of public record,” said Osmeña.
Opposition leader Jonathan Guardo earlier challenged Osmeña to a lifestyle check and questioned the mayor’s ability to afford first-class air travel to the United States to undergo “expensive” cancer treatments despite earning only P360,000 annually as mayor.
The mayor underwent surgery for urinary bladder cancer last year at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he still goes for checkups.
The mayor said he never books first-class but the airline upgrades his seat if one is available “because they know I’m sick.”
The medical treatments are paid from family funds.
Osmeña’s latest SALN mentions a P1.5-million loan from his wealthy sister Victoria Stuart-Osmeña.
The mayor said Guardo’s attempt to divert public attention was a sign that the businessman was “panicking.”
“Instead of answering all these charges, he asked where I get my millions,” Osmeña said.
Guardo, who plans to run against Osmeña for Cebu City’s south district congressional seat, issued his lifestyle check challenge after Osmeña made public the filing of a case by the Philippine Sports Commission against Guardo for allegedly misusing P10 million in funds during the South East Asian Games in 2005.
According to Osmeña’s latest SALN filed in June, his net worth was P3.5 million, down from P5.1 million in 2007.
The reduction was mostly due to a P1.5 million “personal loan” from his sister.
The mayor listed under “assets” P660,000 in stocks, P3.45 million in cash, and P350,000 in other personal property, including jewelry, furniture, and a “second-hand multicab.”
He said he was a stockholder of Happy Stars Promotion and Consultant Inc. and Southern Gems Fashion Inc. since 2006. Both firms have his wife Margot as president and chief executive officer.
Osmeña declared a personal annual gross salary of P464,679, while his family’s gross income reached P751,679.
In an interview, the mayor said that in the 2007 elections, his most prominent rival, Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann de los Santos, spent more money than him in television ads.
He also accused De los Santos of hauling voters (“hakot”) in the 2007 elections, a colloquialism that implies vote-buying.
He said that despite having less funds than De los Santos, he still won in 2007 because running for office under the Bando Osmeña – Pundok Kauswagan party was the cheapest way of getting elected “because people vote for you, and you don’t have to pay them.”
Osmeña said that Guardo and other opposition figures resort to unethical practices because they have no true friends, thus the need to “buy people.”
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