Agriculture chief Luis Lorenzo is richest Cabinet member

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., who reported a net worth of P512.1 million in his latest annual statement of assets and liabilities (SAL), is the richest among the outgoing Cabinet officials of President Arroyo.

Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando came in second with P178.5 million while acting Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar Purisima came in third with P163.6 million.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr., on the other hand, is the "poorest" in the Arroyo Cabinet with a reported net worth of only P1.4 million.

This was based on the latest SAL submitted by the 22 Cabinet officials to the Office of the Ombudsman.

Lorenzo was reportedly on an official mission to the United States when former Solicitor General Frank Chavez included him in the plunder suit he filed against Mrs. Arroyo at the Ombudsman.

Chavez accused Mrs. Arroyo and Lorenzo of allegedly misusing some P728 million of the Agriculture and Fishery Modernization Fund to boost her candidacy in the last elections.

The Palace, through Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, has vehemently denied Chavez’s accusations even as he welcomed the filing of the case as an opportunity for Mrs. Arroyo to prove that the persistent accusations of the political opposition against her are not true.

Lorenzo’s co-accused in the plunder case, Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin, has yet to submit her SAL. Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr., who is currently in Amsterdam attending the ministers’ meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has also not submitted his latest SAL.