Controversial Property: Purisima’s Ordinary House

PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima owns 4.5- hectare property in San Leonardo Nueva Ecija.

Last Monday, October 6, 2014 Director General Alan Purisima, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), opened the gates of his controversial property here in to stop the allegation that his rest house is equivalent to a multi-million peso mansion. He also invited the large group of journalist to personally see his rest house and were allowed to access to the main house and the guest house.

An American inspired structure has three rooms on the ground floor, a master’s bedroom and two other rooms in the attic (source, Manila Bulletin). The design of the house can’t be considered as an ordinary one.

 “It’s for you to judge now if this really a mansion.  And as you enter the house, you will also see if the materials used for the construction are expensive or not” said Purisima.

Purisima’s property is the object that makes everyone criticize against him; especially he is in the position which people may think that he used it to gain luxurious wealth and property.

The property was acquired in 1998 and four years later, the main structures were built. A renovation was done in 2012, according to Gen. Purisima. The total land area of the property is 4.5 hectares. The property is some three to five kilometers away from the town proper. It was bought cheaply because the entire property is flood prone area. He also added that, in fact, the elevated portion where the rest house is located, still experiences ankle-deep flood during heavy rainfall.

“As reporters could see, this property is no mansion by any standard. It is an ordinary house, as ordinary as the other concrete houses that you would see in the neighborhood”, said Purisima in a statement.

“By inviting the media, it is my hope that some questions related to my property would be put rest”, he added.

Whatever property a government employee or official has, he must have to declare it in their Assets and Liabilities, so that there will be no more rumors and allegations to a particular property.

Otherwise, the people won’t any longer trust and respect them. They should provide a good service and be a role model to the Filipino citizenry.