Background - Noli De Castro

Assets and Liabilities
Total Assets (in pesos): 29,843,960.00
Total Liabilities (in pesos): 5,960,750.00
Net Worth (in pesos): 23,883,210.00

Manuel Leuterio de Castro, Jr. (born July 6, 1949), better known as Noli de Castro or "Kabayan" Noli de Castro, is a politician and former broadcast journalist in the Philippines. De Castro was elected Senator in 2001 and was elected as Vice President of the Philippines in 2004. He is the first independent Senatorial topnotcher and the first elected independent Vice-President.

Early life and broadcasting career

Noli de Castro was born in the town of Pola, Oriental Mindoro. He graduated from the University of the East in 1971 with a degree in Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Banking and Finance from the University of the East and a doctorate degree Honoris causa from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

De Castro began his career as a broadcaster during the Marcos dictatorship, when press freedoms were suppressed. He worked as a field reporter for Johnny de Leon, a popular radio announcer at the time. He later became a radio announcer in RPN's DWWW station from 1982 to 1986.

After the ouster of Marcos, de Castro joined ABS-CBN. He got his break into television as the segment host of Good Morning, Philippines' "At your Service". He also joined dzMM, a radio station of ABS-CBN, as the anchorman of "Kabayan". It was because of the popularity of the program that he gained the nickname "Kabayan Noli".

In 1987, De Castro became host of "Magandang Gabi Bayan" and anchorman of the news and public affairs hit, "TV Patrol". In January 1999 he became overall head of production of "TV Patrol" and vice president of dzMM.


Early Political career

Senator
In 2001, Noli De Castro successfully ran for senator as an independent candidate, though he campaigned with the opposition. He garnered more than 16 million votes, the highest ever for a senator in the history of Philippine politics at that time.

As a senator, De Castro authored Senate Bill No. 2029 or the "Local Government Transparency Act" which aimed to end corruption through transparency measures in the local government units as well as the Senior Citizens Act.


Vice-presidency

In the 2004 Philippine election, De Castro ran for vice president. He won by a narrow margin over Senator Loren Legarda but an electoral protest was filed by the latter. The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), dismissed the said protest. He was appointed by President Arroyo as secretary for housing and urban development having been appointed as Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Council (HUDCC). As HUDCC Chair, Vice President De Castro also serves as ex officio Chairman of the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF or Pag-IBIG Fund), the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), the National Housing Authority (NHA), the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC) and the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) as well as ex officio Vice Chairman of the Home Guaranty Corporation (HGC). He has also been designated as concurrent Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers, as Alternate Chairman of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, Head of the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment, Price Monitoring Czar and Cabinet Officer for Regional Development of the MIMAROPA Region (composed of the provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan).