IN 1992, then Senator Estrada tried to mount a presidential campaign, but failed to mobilize enough resources to fund his candidacy. The big contributors, like tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan, for example, had opted to put their money on the star contenders, then House Speaker Ramon Mitra or coconut king Eduardo 'Danding' Cojuangco Jr. Estrada was no doubt popular even then but was considered not quite ripe enough for the presidency. He gave up his candidacy and agreed to run as vice president on Cojuangco's ticket instead. The price for moving down, it was widely bruited about then, was P300 million.

Such cash transactions were not uncommon. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has recounted to journalists that in that election, she was told by her supporters to offer Estrada the vice-presidential slot in a Santiago for President ticket. In exchange, she would give him P50 million. The offer was made at the home of one of Santiago's supporters. But the nonplussed Estrada only made a counter-offer: P100 million if the woman senator ran for vice-president with him, and P50 million was ready right there and then if she said yes.

This, after all, is the reality of money politics in this country, and Estrada is not exactly a political neophyte. When it was his turn to run for the presidency, the cash was, by all accounts, flowing in. The opinion polls had predicted an Estrada victory and even mid-way through the campaign, the thinking was that it was all over but the counting. There was so much money raised, said Estrada campaigners, that a lot of it was left even after the last vote had been tallied.

The problem is that this kind of money is given in the shadows. It cannot be legitimately declared as income or asset without explaining how it was earned. Campaign contributions, despite their role in the capital accumulation of politicians, cannot be entered into corporate ledgers as income or investment without creating headaches for accountants. The same is true for other types of "gray" money that make it to politicians' pockets, such as commissions from government contracts or cuts from deals business enterprises make with official regulators. This is the reason why many politicians cannot legitimately account for their wealth.

THE RECORDS show that Estrada, through JELP Realty Development Corp., the real estate firm he put up with the First Lady and their three children as incorporators, has been acquiring property steadily through the years, although the more formidable acquisitions took place after 1992. JELP was formed in November 1992, five months into Estrada's vice-presidential term, with the President and his wife owning 70 percent of the shares. Ironically, this was a time when Estrada was supposed of have divested himself of his corporate shareholdings as the law requires of officials of the executive branch. Cabinet secretaries during that period went through divestment, but as far as SEC records show, Estrada did not.

Only in March 2000 did JELP submit to SEC a new general information sheet that listed its shareholders; by then the President was no longer on the list. Instead, his shares were transferred to the First Lady. Such divestment is problematic as the implementing rules of RA 6713 say that an official cannot divest in favor of his spouse or any relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity.

In 1992, JELP declared a paid-up capital of P14.4 million, of which P11.3 million was in real property and P3 million in cash. It is difficult to determine how the company built up its asset base and how it funded its real estate purchases from 1993 to 1996 because it has not complied with SEC requirements to file annual financial statements.

It was only in 1997, a year before Estrada was to run for the presidency, that JELP suddenly filed its financial statements. By then, it reported assets of P116.3 million, of which P58.8 million was real property. In 1998, the year Estrada became president, JELP reported assets of P194.2 million, an increase of nearly 67 percent despite the Asian crisis and the slump in real estate prices. Of these assets, P147.2 million was real property.

JELP records show that the Estrada, the First Lady and their children acquired P135.9 million worth of land and buildings between 1992 and 1998. How this was acquired and with what funds are questions that remain unanswered.

Moreover, none of these assets are listed in Estrada's declaration. Neither are JELP's liabilities of P188 million declared in Estrada's statements. Presumably, some of this money went to the acquisition of nearly P90 million worth of real property in 1998 alone. But the President does not say which banks, institutions or individuals lent him so much money in the year of his election, despite a law that mandates that all officials give a full accounting of their assets and liabilities.