self-seeking collaborators and sycophants and the leaders become unable to sense popular feeling. This is what happened in the Arab world during the recent Arab Spring upheavals. Tunisia was the first country where the leaders were toppled. Among the countries of the region, Tunisia had the best educational system, a good infra-structure and was a popular tourist destination. It enjoyed a reputation as a strong technocratic state. But behind this façade lay an administration plagued by corruption. Lisa Anderson, President of the American University in Cairo, writing in the journal ‘Foreign Affairs’ last year on ‘Demystifying the Arab Spring’ wrote: Tunisian President) Ben Ali’s family was also unusually personalist and predatory in its corruption. As the whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks recently revealed, the U.S. ambassador to Tunisia reportedSo how much is he really worth?

According to his 2015 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth or SALN, presidential frontrunner and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte has a net worth for 2015 of only P23,514,569.93, or a slight P1,54-million increase in his declared net worth in 2014.

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Duterte’s cash on hand/in bank, according to his latest SALN, was just P14,839,69.93, as of Dec. 31, 2015.

Duterte filed his SALN for 2015 early — on April 21, 2016, or nine days ahead of the April 30 deadline.

In contrast, until Monday noon, Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” C. Binay, another candidate for president, had yet to file his SALN for 2015 with the Office of the Ombudsman. Meanwhile, there is a waiting period of 10 working days to secure the 2015