Party-list congressmen submit waivers to Ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines - Party-list congressmen Teddy Casiño, Neri Colmenares, Antonio Tinio and Raymond Palatino personally submitted their waivers yesterday before the Office of the Ombudsman, allowing the latter to look into their bank accounts.

“This will allow the Ombudsman to look into our peso and dollar (bank) accounts,” Casiño told reporters.

“Under the bank secrecy law, the Ombudsman cannot look into our bank accounts and this waiver is needed to verify the information we’ve put in our SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth),” he explained.

Casiño and Colmenares are from Bayan Muna, Tinio is from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Palatino is from Kabataan party-list.

Casiño noted that while the Ombudsman could verify the information written in the SALN with respective government offices, the verification could not be done with respect to cash assets.

The waiver stated: “Heeding the call of the people for a transparent and more accountable public official, I hereby waive my right of confidentiality and secrecy of bank deposits under these laws, authorize all banking institutions, for a period beginning today until June 30, 2013 or the end of my term, to disclose to the Ombudsman any and all bank documents pertaining to all peso and foreign currency accounts under my name.”

“I am likewise authorizing the Secretary General of the House of Representatives to release to the public a copy of my SALN for all the years that I served as representative of Congress,” the waiver said.

Casiño said that former chief justice Renato Corona’s move to sign a waiver during the impeachment trial “was meant to protect himself.”

“It’s now a challenge to all public officials,” he said.

He also called for an end to the double-standard, “what is true for the chief justice should also be true for all public officials.”

Meanwhile, Colmenares said that the waiver would help the public know who among public officials are telling the truth in their SALNs, citing limitations under the Foreign Currency Deposits Act.

“The waiver will confirm the content of the SALN. It will show if you stole,” Colmenares said.

He also called on the nominees for the chief justice position to sign a waiver.

Last week, seven representatives from the Makabayan bloc in Congress – namely Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Act and Kabataan – also signed their waivers.