President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and members of his Cabinet will release their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) only to ‘proper authorities’ in compliance with the guidelines set by the Office of the Ombudsman.
The clarification was issued by Palace press officer Claire Castro when asked by reporters here to clarify the statement made by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin rejecting the ‘indiscriminate freedom’ for the public to access SALNs of public officers.
‘First of all, the President has already spoken and said that he is willing to submit and show his SALN to the proper authorities. There are existing rules and procedures set by the Office of the Ombudsman,’ she told reporters on Sunday at the sidelines of the 47th Asean Summit.
Castro said Bersamin’s statement should not be misconstrued as the Malacañang withholding the SALNs of executive officials.
‘The President already said that all requests for SALNs will be granted. But there are certain guidelines provided by the Ombudsman. The executive will comply with these,’ she added.
Castro also confirmed that Cabinet members had an ‘informal meeting’ on Saturday and they agreed to comply with the Ombudsman’s memorandum to disclose their SALNs.
Bersamin earlier said journalists and other interested individuals must have a justified and legitimate reason before they can have a redacted copy of the SALNs of the President and his Cabinet secretaries.
‘We must all take note that the SALN contains many details that might compromise the security, safety of the public officials concerned. So our existing rules require any person who wants to access the SALN of any official should give a good reason,’ he added.
Lawmakers criticized Bersamin’s remarks, stressing that if the Marcos administration was serious in its campaign against corruption, it should start with itself by making the SALN of the President and his alter-egos accessible for public scrutiny.
‘All-out means no cover-ups, no sacred cows, and no stone left unturned. And the administration should not exempt itself from scrutiny,’ House Deputy Minority Leader Leila de Lima said in a statement.
‘The President should demonstrate his sincerity and commitment to transparency and accountability by disclosing his SALN and encouraging his Cabinet to do the same,’ she added.
Kamanggagawa Partylist Rep. Elijah ‘Eli’ San Fernando, who had voluntarily released his SALN to the public last week, called out Bersamin’s ”hypocritical and evasive’ statement.
‘That’s simple: if you have nothing to hide, why are you afraid to let the public see and scrutinize your SALN?’ he said in a statement on Sunday ‘They talk about transparency, yet can’t show their SALN-that’s the real security threat to the country. If they’re truly clean, then why not just make it public?’ he added.