MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV wants to look into the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) submitted to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) by some Cabinet officials which, according to Malacañang, are compliant with the law.
Senate Resolution 514 filed by Trillanes the other day calls for an inquiry into this issue and he wants the Senate committee on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation, which he heads, to be the one to conduct this.
During yesterday’s plenary session, the resolution was referred to the Blue Ribbon committee and the civil service committee.
Journalists at the PCIJ, who received copies of these SALNs, found that some of the entries were redacted, including description and acquisition costs of real properties that the Cabinet officials own.
The PCIJ noted 167 redacted details in 29 SALNs it has reviewed.
In his resolution, Trillanes cited the position taken by the Civil Service Commission that Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, which provides for the disclosure of the SALNs, must prevail over the Data Privacy Act.
Palace spokesman Ernesto Abella said that the SALNs released were summarized values allowed by the law.
He also defended the redacting of some entries to protect the privacy of the officials concerned.
Trillanes, however, recalled how the late chief justice Renato Corona was impeached for failure to disclose detailed information about the condominium units and other assets that he owned and the details of his bank accounts in his SALNs.
“The same provision (of RA 6713) further states that any and all statements filed in compliance with the said law should be made available and accessible to the public as part of fulfilling the principles of transparency and accountability of public service,” Trillanes said in his resolution.
Trillanes noted that the selective disclosure of details about the assets and liabilities of current Cabinet officials comes at a time when President Duterte has even signed Executive Order No. 2 or his own version of the proposed freedom of information act that covers officials and employees of the executive branch of government.
“There is an imperative necessity to investigate this matter, in aid of legislation, in order to determine whether or not certain public officials violated the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Government Employees and/or the Philippine Constitution, and to look into the possibility of coming up with remedial legislation in this regard,” Trillanes said in his resolution. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe