A year after the death of National Artist Nora Aunor, the question of who speaks for her legacy has spilled into the open, with two of her children offering sharply different accounts of how the late Superstar’s properties should be managed.
Ian de Leon, Aunor’s only biological son with actor Christopher de Leon, has maintained that the family agreed early on to handle their mother’s affairs jointly. Recalling a conversation among the siblings after the state funeral, he said the plan was for the five of them to work together and keep nothing hidden from one another. “Sa ‘kin na lahat? After the state funeral, when 5 of us are talking… I was clear, that told you guys na tulong-tulong tayong lima dito at maging transparent sa isa’t isa. And everything will take time and divided equally. Pero ang palabas is madamot ako. Why?” he said, rejecting the suggestion that he intended to keep everything for himself.
That framing has been disputed by his sister, Lotlot de Leon, the eldest of Aunor’s adopted children. She has insisted that she and her siblings never demanded a share of what their mother left behind, and that she raised the matter with Ian only to ask whether he was open to dividing the properties. “Walang nanghihingi niyan, walang nang-aagaw. At sinabi ko kay Ian if you’re willing to share the properties of mommy with us, maraming salamat. Kung hindi, okay lang walang problema,” she said.
The friction traces back to the formation of a one-person corporation meant to oversee Aunor’s enterprise and foundation, an arrangement Ian has tied to his role as legal heir. The estate covers a substantial body of film and music work built over a career that earned Aunor the country’s highest cultural distinction in 2022.
Aunor died on April 16, 2025, at age 71, and was laid to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani following a state funeral.
