Palace open to having redacted SALNs of Cabinet officials investigated

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella (File photo by JOAN BONDOC / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Malacañang insisted Monday that the details redacted from the statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) of Cabinet officials were for their privacy and was allowed by law.

But despite this, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Malacañang was open to an investigation on the redacted SALNs if needed.

“Again, I go back to the argument, to the reason given behind that certain items need to be kept private,” Abella said in a Palace briefing. “If indeed there is an investigation that needs to be done, then it can be followed through, if these things are deemed suspect.”

“In other words, if investigation is [needed] to be done, it may be done,” he added.

He said the summarized amounts in the SALNs of some Cabinet officials were “deemed sufficient by the law.”

“The full disclosure has been made regarding the summarized amounts,” Abella said. “These disclosures are not meant to be the total disclosure of the thing.”

In a report, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) showed that there was an “epidemic” of redactions made on the December 2016 SALNs of 29 Cabinet officials.

Responding to the PCIJ report, Abella said over the weekend that members of the Caninet still had the right to privacy as he invoked the Data Privacy Act.

/atm