Palace: Bank secrecy waiver is overrated

Malacañang has shrugged off as overrated the waiver on  of a public official’s bank accounts compared to the waiver contained in the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) that allows the Ombudsman to look into one’s assets.

Edwin Lacierda, President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesperson, said Saturday that the waiver in the SALN was more comprehensive than the waiver on bank account secrecy that both President Aquino’s allies and foes want him to sign.

Mr. Aquino had promised during the election campaign he would sign a waiver on the confidentiality of his bank deposits if he were elected president, but has changed his tune.

“The mandatory waiver in the SALN is more expansive and more comprehensive than the waiver in the secrecy of bank deposits,” Lacierda said over state-run radio dzRB.

“It involves the waiver of not only your cash deposits, it also includes the waiver (for the Ombudsman to look into) your financial interests, business interests, assets, not only in terms of cash but also in terms of properties,” he said.

On Friday, President Aquino insisted that he had fulfilled his campaign promise when he signed his SALN that also included the waiver giving the Ombudsman the authority to look into the extent of his wealth.

Lacierda said a corrupt public official could easily stash his loot in a bank account under another name and he or she would have rendered the bank waiver useless to the government’s antigraft investigators.

“As of now, we have seen that with proper implementation and how the Ombudsman did it, and how we look at it from what transpired during the impeachment trial, we can see that the SALN is an effective means of looking at, of checking accountability, of ensuring transparency,” Lacierda said.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales used Corona’s waiver in his SALN to ask the Anti-Money Laundering Council for bank records.

Her office then pored over the details of Corona’s dollar deposits—an act the Supreme Court earlier prevented the Senate impeachment court from doing.

Morales’ testimony on 82 dollar accounts and $10 million to $12 million in deposits prompted Corona to testify and tell the court that he only had five dollar accounts and $2.4 million in deposits.