Several officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, including those who have been fired or suspended, are now undergoing what amounts to lifestyle checks.
Their assets have been frozen by the courts upon the recommendation of the Anti-Money Laundering Council. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is working with the AMLC and state prosecutors to determine if tax returns match declared incomes. The Bureau of Customs and Land Transportation Office are also providing inputs in determining if assets are ill-gotten.
Now we know that it isn’t impossible to carry out this type of inter-agency cooperation in trying to ferret out illegally amassed wealth.
Such multi-agency cooperation need not wait for a law against racketeering, which legislators have refused to craft as much as they have resisted proposals for regulating campaign finance, easing bank secrecy rules and curbing political dynasties.
President Marcos ordered the lifestyle checks in the final week of August, with an initial focus on DPWH officials and employees implicated in the flood control scandal.
Inevitably, he was urged to lead by example. In response, Malacañang said the President is ready to undergo a lifestyle check. The Office of the Vice President issued a similar statement, saying OVP officials and employees are also ready.
Now that the DPWH officials face asset checks, Malacañang can make good on its statement and start expanding the initiative.
A good start will be the release of the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth of the President since he assumed power. Several SALNs are needed to assess any wealth increase or reduction in the past three years. Malacañang has said scrutiny of SALNs is part of the lifestyle checks.
With the President getting the ball rolling, Cabinet members can follow, since they are tasked to oversee the lifestyle checks in their respective agencies.
There’s no need to wait for an order from the Office of the Ombudsman, which has not prohibited anyone from voluntarily making one’s SALN public.
There’s also no need to wait for a formal request from any entity such as media organizations. The three representatives of the Akbayan party-list plus a former member of the group who is currently sitting in Congress released their SALNs to the public with no one formally requesting it.
Before the previous ombudsman turned the SALN into a top-secret document, it was an annual routine for officials starting with the president and all members of both chambers of Congress to release their SALNs, or at least make public the amounts they declared as assets, liabilities and net worth. It’s time to restore this practice.