How rich are House solons? Nobody knows

We know how wealthy President Duterte, Vice President Leni Robredo, the Cabinet officials and the senators were in 2017—but not the members of the House of Representatives.

That’s because the House has yet to release the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) of the representatives, not only for 2017 but also for 2016.

The problem: The House is still finalizing its rules on the release of these documents.

The House’s SALN review and compliance committee secretariat said it had deferred action on requests for the wealth disclosures, including one submitted by the Inquirer last month.

No plenary approval yet

The reply received by the Inquirer stated that the committee was still awaiting the plenary approval of the proposed rules of procedure in the filing, review, disclosure of, and access to the SALNs of members, officers and employees of the House.

May is typically the time when the Office of the Ombudsman and the Senate release the SALNs of officials under their coverage, since the annual deadline for filing SALNs is April 30.

But, the House adjourned its session on May 30 without the rules even making it into the agenda, delaying the processing of disclosure requests.

Sought for comment, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, the chair of the rules committee, relayed to the Inquirer explanations from several House officials regarding the status of the SALN rules.

Fariñas shared a message from Deputy Majority Leader Rimpy Bondoc, who said the SALN committee “had already finished” the rules.

But the Civil Service Commission (CSC) came up with proposed new SALN guidelines, delaying the House’s completion of its own rules.

Bondoc said the CSC move “necessitat[ed] further review” of the House’s proposed SALN rules.

Just one meeting

Deputy Minority Leader Eugene Michael de Vera said the CSC had only conducted one consultative meeting with various agencies, including the House.

De Vera said the House SALN committee suggested that the CSC hold “more consultations” and consider position papers on the proposed new SALN rules.

One meeting was held in April, De Vera said. “[There’s] no feedback yet,” he added.

The House SALN committee and the Office of the President have pushed for the promulgation of new CSC rules, because the present rules “appear to not be in accordance” with the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, De Vera said.