MANILA, Philippines — It wouldn’t be possible to buy a P14-million luxury condominum unit — let alone a few other pieces of premium property — while living on a government salary for roughly 20 years, a Malacanang official said on Saturday.

“Not unless it could be shown there was an inheritance while in service,” said Undersecretary Abigail Valte, the deputy presidential spokesperson, on radio.

Valte also said having the means to buy a property like Chief Justice Renato Corona’s 300-square-meter unit at the Bellagio would depend on the pieces of property that a government official already owned upon entering the government service.

“If only on a government salary, it really wouldn’t be enough,” Valte said.

Valte made the remarks after the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that SALNs showed Chief Justice Renato Corona’s net worth in 1992 when he joined the executive branch was P14.9 million.

The documents showed he was worth a million pesos less 10 years later in 2002 when then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Valte said Corona’s SALNs when he was then President Fidel Ramos’ assistant executive secretary for legal affairs in 1992 and when he was presidential adviser and chief of staff of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2002 would be in records of the Office of the President.

She said she would have to check if the figures in SALNs reported would be the same with those in the records of Malacanang.

“It would also be good to see his SALNs after those years so that we can see if he really has the capacity to buy those types of property,” Valte said.

“Because if his first SALN was in 1992, that’s more or less 20 years in government… living on a government salary and in different positions,” she added.