Law on assets disclosure should be clarified – Santiago

Senator Miriam Santiago

MANILA, Philippines — Congress should now rewrite the law on the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) of public officials to prevent any confusion over what assets they must declare, Senator Miriam Santiago said on Sunday.

Santiago said a divergent interpretation of existing laws apparently prompted some of her colleagues to vote for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona for failure to disclose his foreign currency deposits in his SALN.

In a radio interview, Santiago said the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Government Officials and Employees (R.A. 6713) required that all assets be listed in the SALN.

Corona’s critics interpret this directive to include his dollar accounts.

However, Corona’s lawyers invoked the Foreign Currency Deposits Act (FCDA or R.A. 6426) that has provided for the confidentiality of foreign bank deposits.

Santiago, a former judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, noted that in case of conflicting provisions between a general law like R.A. 6713 and a special law like R.A. 6426, the special law should prevail.

The senator pointed this out when senator-judges voted at the end of Corona’s impeachment trial.

Still she was unable to convince 20 of the 23 senator-judges who said the Chief Justice was guilty of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for his failure to disclose his dollar deposits in his SALN.

Santiago said that the Civil Service Commission (CSC), which has been in charge of checking whether the entries in a SALN were correct, would encounter problems in doing its job unless there was a law that listed down all assets that needed to be declared.

“The best way to deal with this problem is to determine what should be included and what are the exceptions. We do this so there would be no room for doubt.  Remember, the case against the Chief Justice was about doubt,” she explained.

Santiago said only Congress could make this clarification.

As it was, she noted, the CSC deferred a plan to require all government officials and workers to list down even expenditures for groceries, travel and other items not normally included in the SALN.

Traditionally, the asset column of a SALN only includes a government worker’s real estate properties, significantly priced material possessions like paintings and jewelry, liquid assets and business interests.

Implementation of the expanded SALN plan was deferred following loud objections, some from high officials themselves.