Escudero dares fellow bets to bare financial records

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Reelectionist Sen. Francis Escudero on Friday dared his fellow candidates and incumbent lawmakers to allow the scrutiny of the extent of their respective wealth through signed waivers of the bank secrecy rights to accompany their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Escudero, who filed as early as 2010 a bill seeking to require public officials to sign such waivers, made the dare in the wake of investigative news reports that certain public officials have offshore assets in foreign tax havens.

“In the interest of transparency, candidates in the coming elections without exception should make public their financial records going by the dictum that working in government is a privilege and not a right,” Escudero said in a statement.

“While owning assets in offshore tax havens is not against the law, what is illegal is if these assets are not declared under the yearly SALN of public officials,” he added.

Escudero said his challenge for a bank secrecy waiver covers his peers in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

He called on members of Congress to take the lead in the transparency move by enacting a law requiring government officials to sign waivers on the secrecy of bank accounts to open these to government audit.