Santiago pushes for detailed SALN to include travels, gifts, donations

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — High-ranking government officials must be made to accomplish a more detailed form for their statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth to include travels, gifts received and other financial transactions, including donations, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago proposed on Monday.

Santiago filed a bill earlier this month proposing that public officials with a salary grade of 27 or above, who are also those who could be charged before the Sandiganbayan, should disclose more data in their SALN forms.

“Under the present SALN form, erring public officials are able to evade the intent of the law by not declaring the money donations received from individuals by reason of their position,” Santiago said in her explanatory note.

In declaring financial transactions, which would include donations, sale, and assignment, the date and amount of transaction must be disclosed.

For gifts, officials must disclose the source, a brief description of the gift, and its value.

For travels, government officials must report all travel and travel-related reimbursements from a single source and connected to official business, with information on the source, dates, purpose of the travel, and itinerary.

At the same time, Santiago wants to require public officials to use the current fair market value of their real properties indicated in the tax declaration in computing their net worth.

This would reflect the true wealth of a government official, she said.

According to her, under the present SALN rules, the acquisition cost of the real property is being used to compute an official’s net worth.

“However, this cannot curb the practice of undervaluing the acquisition cost for purposes of avoiding the payment of higher taxes and under-declaring the property in the SALN,” she said.

The buyer and seller of a property might state a price less than the fair market value in the deed of sale, she added.

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