'Congressmen's updated SALNs available to public'

MANILA, Philippines - The statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) of members of the House of Representatives are available and updated each year for public scrutiny, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

“We are publishing every year the summaries. On a per request basis, individual SALNs have been released,” he said.       

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, who chairs the House committee on public information, said the House has no reason to withhold such documents from the public.

“We are following President Aquino’s policy of transparency and accountability. We have nothing to hide. If there is difficulty on the part of an interested party in obtaining a particular SALN, it could be an administrative problem, which the House secretary general should address,” he said.

Evardone, a former journalist, said while the issue of disclosure on the part of every public official and employee is valid, “it should not distract us from the impeachment charge of lack of disclosure of the Chief Justice of his SALN.”

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) has complained of the alleged failure of the House to provide it with copies of the congressmen’s annual statements on their wealth.

Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello said he has always been releasing his SALN “to anyone who requests it, especially to our friends in the media.” He hinted that PCIJ did not ask for it.

“All that our friends in PCIJ needed to do was to approach our office directly, and we would have gladly provided them a copy,” he said.

He said the problem encountered by PCIJ could have arisen from “administrative bottlenecks” and their “story should have been clear on this.”

Another party-list representative, Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna, said he was releasing his SALN “to all who care to have a copy.”

“I challenge other public officials, especially Chief Justice Renato Corona, to do the same,” he said.

Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada said House members have always been open about their SALN. “We don’t have secret SALN like the Chief Justice,” he said.  

Vice President Jejomar Binay, for his part, denied allegations in the PCIJ report that he was keeping his SALN secret.

Denial

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio also denied reports that he owns a luxurious penthouse condominium unit that was declared in his SALN.

“I do not own the so-called 800 square meter penthouse unit with a swimming pool,” Carpio said in a media statement.

“My family owns one of the two units on the floor below the penthouse, and there is no swimming pool in our unit. Our unit is reported in my SALN,” he said.

He did not reveal the value of his unit in the 23-year-old Avignon Tower, but said he has been living there even before he joined the Supreme Court.

He also revealed his other interests including one-eighth stake in the estate of Bernardo Carpio, one-seventh interest in the estate of Sol Carpio and one-seventh of one-sixth interest in the estate of Lourdes Carpio.

The magistrate, however, did not make public the actual breakdown and accounting of each of his properties.

A 350-sq. meter, four-bedroom unit in the Avignon Tower costs about P17 million to P19 million when fully furnished, according to real estate dealers consulted by The STAR.

Corona reportedly owns a 300-sq. m. apartment in the posh Bellagio Tower in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig worth P14.5 million.

His lawyer, former SC justice Serafin Cuevas explained that the questioned apartment is a conjugal property of the Coronas and that it was not acquired using ill-gotten funds. – Jess Diaz, Edu Punay