Your SALN please!

After all the sanctimonious and pious declarations of our congressmen and senators in the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, people are asking, “please release your SALN so we can take a look and then find out whether you are as religious in your observance of the law, the Constitution primarily as you insist in the trial, otherwise your words are nothing but lies to convict Corona.”

In a meeting with a few friends, they said that this will be their demand of anyone who stands for election. The El Shaddai has also made it a condition for their support – show us your Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth to prove to you have not enriched yourself in office.”

The SALN had not been given much importance by government officials and employees until the trial so that most comply with them perfunctorily. Now the SALN has suddenly become an important document for the citizens and can become a nightmare, the haunting of government officials. This is the legacy of the impeachment and of Corona who opened his SALN and dared his accusers to reveal theirs.

The fact that most of the prosecutors and all the senator judges and the President and his cabinet had refused to open their SALN, they become suspects to have failed to comply with the law in the same manner that Corona failed to fully disclosed his assets in the SALN.

The contents of the SALN are under oath so that any discrepancy there, if indeed consciously committed constitute perjury.

This perjury is actually easy to determine because there are certain assets that are glaringly known that are not included. Never mind the liabilities because chances are the indebtedness could even be more than the actual liabilities. The jacking up is intended to reduce one’s net worth and appear not overly wealthy. I know somebody who borrows from the bank not because he needs the money but to inflate his liabilities prior to the filing of the SALN.

Aside from the SALN being under oath the official or employee already executes a waiver within the SALN for the Ombudsman to check its content, including the person’s bank accounts. Asking the person for another waiver is already superfluous.

What we want, however, is for the SALN to be available on written request. Rep. Neil Tupas had so far refused, as most of the congressmen, to make their SALN available to media.

Why is this so? Let’s take the case of Tupas, the prosecutors and the senators who voted to convict.

If we follow the premises of Tupas and his company during the trial that refusing to disclose the SALN means the official has something to hide, then Tupas and company have plenty to hide because despite the public clamor they refused to divulge, making one poor excuse after another lame excuse.

Is it true, for instance, that Tupas has a multi-million mansion somewhere? If he has, then his SALN should show that. On the other hand, if there is none, then that cannot be included in his SALN.

But suppose he has a multi-million mansion as rumors say and that is not in his SALN, should Tupas be removed from office?

That same situation can apply to the others because as Sen. Koko Pimentel declared, the law for Juan must be the same law for Corona. Similarly, the law for Corona must be the same law for Tupas et al.

The SALN thus will become an important document that one side will demand from the other. Of course there will be always a way out, as succinctly explained by Sen. Serge Osmeña in a rather bizarre way why President Aquino should not be held to comply with his election promise to disclose his SALN – political promises are intended to be broken.

The clamor for the publication of the SALN will not die down because other congressmen had already made available their SALNs and the justices of the Supreme Court have issued an order to all its judges and employees for their release. We will have a field day looking at these SALNs if we want to run after a judge.

The Yellow Army and their rivals of the same political color have here a great challenge to help their President on the matter of transparency. Now let us find out if they are as good in demanding for Corona as they would with other public officials.

While the President is not an accused and he has already submitted his SALN, his action, if done voluntarily will be a signal to the entire government machinery to follow suit. This move is not just to comply with his election promise but an important step to show his sincerity to run after all crooks in government, not just his enemies.*

back to top