All 24 senators have bared their Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth (SALNs) amid calls for transparency, but a University of the Philippines (UP) professor urged on Wednesday to release past SALNs for comparison and to identify inconsistencies.
‘We should backtrace all the data to see the inconsistencies that are being pointed out. We’re already releasing SALNs, might as well go back to the previous years since they took office,’ UP College of Media and Communications Professor Danilo Arao said in a press conference.
Arao also added that a significant increase in a public official’s net worth could have reasonable explanations, while some may be questionable if not contextualized.
‘Because there are also particularities. For example, there is a senator who has a prenuptial agreement with his very rich wife. You can understand that a little bit. But with others who are not clear about the context and then they say that their assets, liabilities and net worth are this small, you really wonder why that is,’ Arao explained.
This was prompted after some netizens questioned the numbers declared by public officials, citing the cost of personal items owned by senators. Others even claimed that the listed items on the SALNs may have been ‘doctored.’
In the same press conference, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Chair Teddy Casiño said that such comments, scrutinizing the documents are ‘precisely the point’ of releasing SALNs.
‘These comments: ‘Seems lacking? It’s too little’ That’s the point. There will now be that process of checking, and it will be harder to hide ill-gotten wealth,’ Casiño stated.
On Wednesday, Senators Imee Marcos, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Bato de la Rosa released their SALNs-the last three of the 24 to do so.
Senator Mark Villar declared the highest net worth amounting to P1.2 billion, followed by Senator Raffy Tulfo whose joint net worth with his wife CT-CIS party-list Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo is P1.052 billion.
On the other hand, Senator Francis Escudero declared the lowest net worth of over P18.8 million as of December 31, 2024.