EDITORIAL - Honesty in SALNS

In a rare interjection at the Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday, Sen. Lito Lapid raised two issues about the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth or SALN that all public officials are required to file every year.

One is that ordinary people don’t know what the SALN is so they don’t care, he said, about the issue.

People may now start caring after prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte showed that based on her SALNs, her net worth surged from P7.25 million in 2007 when she first joined the government, to P98.66 million in 2025.

The second issue that Lapid raised was whether SALNs contain accurate and honestly declared information. He cited an interview wherein a lawyer wondered whether it was true that all politicians are dishonest in filing their SALNs.

Prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Duterte are presenting her SALNs for comparison with her income tax returns as well as to determine if her bank deposits held with her husband Manases Carpio were included in her official declarations of assets.

These issues still have to be threshed out in the impeachment trial. But the interjection of Lapid as scrutiny of the Vice President’s SALN got underway highlighted the weakness of authorities in verifying the accuracy of official asset statements.

Combined with tax filings, the SALN can serve as a gauge for the accumulation of unexplained or ill-gotten wealth. Annual submission of the SALN is required under Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

RA 6713 also provides for public access to the SALNs – something that has been resisted by top officials starting with members of the Supreme Court.

Jesus Crispin Remulla, upon appointment as ombudsman, restored this public access to the SALNs of government officials and employees whose statements are submitted to his office, among them the president, vice president and the heads of constitutional bodies.

But the ombudsman is not the repository of the SALNs of members of Congress and the Supreme Court, who submit their asset statements to the secretary-general and the SC clerk of court, respectively.

The asset statements can be scrutinized in criminal investigations and in an impeachment trial, or by the Anti-Money Laundering Council. Unless a complaint is filed or an investigation is launched motu proprio, however, the accuracy of the SALN is not verified. 

Making the SALNs public, as provided under RA 6713, allows monitoring for accuracy and unusual increases in assets.

The top officials of all three branches of government must lead by example in releasing their SALNs, and showing that there is such a thing as honest declaration of assets.