EDITORIAL - Accurate declarations

President Aquino is poorer, although only by P1,600, according to his latest statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, filed before the April 30 deadline. The unprecedented ouster of Renato Corona as chief justice last year, mainly over glaring inaccuracies in his SALN, is seen to have encouraged more honesty in the official asset declarations filed by public servants. The next step is to improve the capability of the state to determine the accuracy of the declarations.

Before Corona’s ouster, the annual filing of SALNs was little more than a farce, with public officials known to be enormously wealthy and living in the most expensive real estate enclaves declaring laughable net worth. Challenging the accuracy of the official declarations was rare, probably because not too many people have the expertise for the number crunching required and the resources to trace bank deposits and other hidden assets.

With combined resources, however, several government agencies can efficiently verify asset statements. The filing of SALNs is meant to enhance transparency and accountability in government service. These objectives can be achieved only if the asset declarations can be verified and violators ferreted out. Agencies involved in the verification process need not scrutinize the SALN of each of the government’s over a million officials and employees. A small sampling, with certain ranking officials included, will send the message that the state has the capability to verify asset declarations.

Alongside the capacity-building for SALN verification, the state must be able to penalize violators of the rules. At the same time, there should be a system of quickly resolving cases involving honest mistakes, together with a continuing program to brief public servants about the proper way of filing SALNs. Public servants have pointed out that the requirements for filing an asset statement can be too complicated for non-accountants.

Requiring public servants to declare their assets is meant to minimize corruption in a society where this problem is deeply entrenched. The daang matuwid administration should help see to it that the filing requirement achieves its objective.