Just days after losing in the recall elections, former Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn admitted on Friday that he did not declare some of his vehicles in his previous statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
Hagedorn, however, said he did not think that the two luxury vehicles—a 1992 BMW model and a 1997 Volvo model—needed to be declared in the first place, saying they were already old models.
In a May 12 resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the filing of nine counts of perjury and one count each of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct for Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees against Hagedorn for his alleged untruthful declarations in his SALNs from 2004 to 2012.
“Actually, the luxury cars that I see there are only two. One, the BMW, a 1992 model. When I bought that, that was already 18 years old. Same with the Volvo, that is already 17 years old so it has no more book value. They are luxurious cars, yes, but the models are old already. I don’t think that kind of property needs to be declared,” he said in a press conference at the CEO Suites in Makati.
He said while around 40 motorcycles were also under his name, these “cannot be declared because they are distributed to employees” in Christmas raffles.
“The motorcycles were the ones that made the (supposed) undeclared vehicles (in the SALNs) appear that they were a lot,” Hagedorn said.
He also denied allegations of the Ombudsman that he did not declare ownership of 59 parcels of real property.
He said he declared “the full amount plus the attachment of all properties,” showing to reporters a copy of the supposed SALN he filed in 2012.
Asked if there were copies of his SALNs from 2004 to 2011, he said “they are all almost the same.”
“That’s why I don’t know what they’re saying about the 59 properties that we (supposedly) did not declare. We declared everything,” he said, noting that he was “surprised” that the Ombudsman resolution appeared in the newspaper even if they haven’t received a copy of the same yet. With a report by Celine Palenzuela, intern