Sotto to Duterte: Lead the way, show your SALN

FILE PHOTO Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and President Rodrigo Duterte.

MANILA, Philippines — While it may be a tall order to require all candidates to publicly disclose their wealth, President Rodrigo Duterte should lead by example and release his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Tuesday.

“He is the president. The people expect transparency in their leaders,” the Senate leader said in an interview on ANC.

Vice President Leni Robredo, the opposition presidential candidate, made a similar call.

The last time Duterte released his SALN to the public was in 2018 in which he declared a net worth of P28.5 million as of December 2017.

The president’s net worth in his first six months in office rose from P24,080,094.04 in June 2016 to P27,428,862.44 in December that year. The president explained that the over P3-million increase came from the excess campaign contributions that he had received.

Despite his announcement last month that he will retire from politics after he steps down next year, he filed his certificate of candidacy for senator in the 2022 elections.

Denied access

Republic Act No. 6713 on the code of conduct of government officials and employees designates the Office of the Ombudsman as custodian of the SALN of the president, vice president, and chairpersons and commissioners of constitutional commissions and offices.

But Ombudsman Samuel Martires has repeatedly denied public access to the document despite the same law mandating its disclosure. He issued a memorandum in September last year giving access to a SALN only with the concerned official’s consent.

Sotto said he agreed with the proposal of Sorsogon Gov. Francis Escudero that all candidates should reveal their SALN “in the spirit of transparency and accountability” and to help voters make the best choices.

Bank waivers, too

Escudero, who is seeking a return to the Senate, also proposed the mandatory signing of bank waivers along with the filing of the SALN by all public officials and employees.

The waiver will give the Ombudsman the authority to look into all local and foreign bank deposits and investments of public servants, Escudero said.

The Senate publishes yearly on its website only the totals of the 24 senators’ assets, liabilities and net worth.

A similar summary of the SALN of each member of the House of Representatives is available on its website, but only up to 2018. In 2019, the House rules were tightened to require plenary approval, or the consent of at least majority of the representatives, before a member’s SALN is released.

Under Civil Service Commission regulations, the public may request a copy of the SALN of a senator or a congressman from their respective secretariats.

In an interview with reporters in Nueva Ecija on Monday, Robredo said that while her SALN had been submitted to the Ombudsman, anyone who would make a request to her office that complied with requirements would be given a copy.

“Our call is that other candidates and also public officials should do the same because that is the reason why it is required under the law,” she said.

‘Unconstitutional’

It was unclear from Sotto’s statement whether he wanted Duterte to disclose just a summary of his assets and liabilities or their full details.

Sotto noted that the SALN law already had a provision that authorized the Ombudsman to secure from all government agencies any document that may indicate a government officer’s assets, liabilities, net worth, business interests and financial connections.

According to Sotto, the problem with compelling candidates to publish their SALN is that the Supreme Court “would shoot it down.”

He recalled that a provision requiring all candidates to undergo drug testing in the 2002 dangerous drugs law he authored was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court “because in the Constitution, it only says you have to be a Filipino citizen and know how to read and write.”

The high court said that provision “imposes a qualification for candidates for senators in addition to those already provided for in the 1987 Constitution.”

“If we say all candidates have to file their SALN, if somebody questions that, the SC already has jurisprudence. The Supreme Court will call it unconstitutional,” he explained.

He said this situation showed the urgency of enacting a freedom of information bill (FOI).

“We passed it in the Senate a couple of times already, if you will recall. Sen. Grace Poe was the proponent. We passed it twice,” Sotto said.

As an anticorruption tool, the FOI could be used to inquire into the amount and provenance of a government official’s wealth.

—WITH A REPORT FROM JULIE M. AURELIO AND INQUIRER RESEARCH