When news broke that Gloria Arroyo’s assets grew by P44 million in 2008 from 2007, Malacañang’s first instinct was to defend it. Supposedly the President became so much richer because she had sold three hectares of land. Then the Palace realized the mistake. If Arroyo sold land, she must have previously owned it. In which case, it should have been listed in 2007 as real estate asset with corresponding value. Selling it in 2008 would have transferred the asset into the cash column. So to have a P44-million increase in total assets due to land sale, she must have made tremendous profit. But the problem is that no major land transfer with such markup transpired in 2008; otherwise, the buyer would have registered it for titling and Arroyo should have paid equally tremendous capital gains tax. The story wouldn’t hold water. So Malacañang changed it to Arroyo supposedly profiting from stock market placements.