Before joining Cabinet, Abad paid P8,150 income tax

MANILA, Philippines - Budget Secretary Florencio Abad paid a total of P8,150 in income tax over a three-year period before joining the Cabinet of President Aquino in mid-2010.

This is reflected in the notarized Disclosure of Net Worth that he executed when Aquino nominated him budget secretary. The disclosure is among documents the Commission on Appointments requires of Cabinet nominees.

Based on the disclosure, Abad earned P64,000 in 2006, P53,000 in 2007, P42,000 in 2008 and P16,000 in 2009.

His income tax payments were P6,400 for 2006, P1,500 for 2007 and P250 for 2008. He was tax-exempt in 2009.

“I can fully explain my tax payments,” Abad said when reached for comment.

“I was jobless since I resigned from the Cabinet of then President Arroyo in 2005 in the wake of the ‘Hello, Garci’ scandal. I earned only small amounts and honorarium from consultancy services and speaking engagements,” he said.        

Abad served as education secretary in the Arroyo administration.

His wife, Henedina, paid tax of P80,495, P31, 812.50, P280,811.84 and P78,800 on earnings amounting to P390,050 in 2006, P209,250 in 2007, P1,044,412 in 2008, and P421,000 in 2009.

He said his wife was representative of their province, Batanes, in 2006 up to the first six months of 2007, and was employed by Ateneo in 2008 and 2009.

She was again elected as congresswoman in 2010 and won reelection in May last year.

In his net worth disclosure, Abad said he was declaring his and his wife’s wealth “to the best that we can reconstruct our records since I was not in the government service during said years (2006-2009) and therefore was not required to submit my statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.”

He declared a net worth of P10.9 million in 2006, P14.4 million in 2007, P17.8 million in 2008, and P22.1 million in 2009.

For 2013, Abad declared a net worth of P32 million.

Alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles has claimed that Abad, as Batanes congressman, had taught her how to use foundations for her transactions with lawmakers.

The budget chief denied this, saying Napoles was “hallucinating.”