Ombudsman on point

Just when you think the Ombudsman cannot do anything else to get your ire, she comes out with a memo that would just ruin your day.

It is now much harder to get a copy of the SALN of any government official or lawmaker. If it only took a letter to be given one before, now you need to have a sworn statement before a prosecutor from the Ombudsman stating the reasons for the request, and must possess at least two government issued ID cards!

This definitely comes in the light of Cong. Mikey Arroyo's non-declaration of a house he apparently bought in the US , with a current value of more than 60 million pesos! The eldest of the Arroyo children has made a bungling of trying to explain how he got the house with regards to where and how he got the money to purchase it.

Despite feeble attempts at explaining, he has only dug a deeper hole for himself. Now that a case of graft has been filed against him, he sarcastically welcomes it.

And why not? The current Ombudsman has always been there to protect the First Family. The point man, if you would. Why else would First Gentleman Mike Arroyo put his former classmate Merceditas Gutierrez there in the first place? And this latest memo regarding securing copies of SALNs proves it.

SALN are supposed to be public documents. They are there so that the people can monitor if a government official, employee or politician is enriching himself illegally while in office. Access to such documents should be easy, to preserve the necessary transparency of the document.

Making it harder to attain copies of the SALN only stinks of protecting the administration's allies from scrutiny regarding their nefarious activities!

It is an obvious move by the Ombudsman to give more time for corrections to be made, should anomalies be present. The past weeks have focused on the Arroyo wealth, and how it has grown considerably in the years President Arroyo has been in office.

There has been more outrage regarding all that the Arroyo administration has done the past eight years. Even the little things like this obvious response to the Presidential son's embarrassment regarding a house he just cannot explain how was acquired.

It really is a battle between good and evil, no matter how her pawns would like to shield their Queen.