EDITORIAL - Release your SALNs

It wasn’t President Marcos who led public officials in releasing their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. Instead, members of the Akbayan party-list in the House of Representatives beat him to it, getting the ball rolling yesterday with the release of their SALNs.

Akbayan topped the party-list race in May this year, proving all surveys wrong by garnering 2.77 million votes on a platform of transparency and good governance.

True to its advocacy, its three representatives released their SALNs, which showed Chel Diokno declaring total assets of P13.1 million; Percival Cendaña, P1 million, and Dadah Ismula, P3.2 million. They were joined by Dinagat Island Rep. Arlene Bag-ao, who once served as Akbayan party-list representative, who declared P15 million in total assets.

Now that wasn’t too hard, was it?

Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, requires public access to the SALNs of government officials. An order of the Office of the Ombudsman cannot be above this law. Yet throughout much of the term of Samuel Martires as ombudsman, all public officials from the president down invoked the order that turned SALNs into top-secret documents.

Martires has retired, and President Marcos will soon be picking a new ombudsman. The President has been stressing the importance of transparency and accountability as he cracks down on corruption in flood control projects and the budget process.

He can show that this is not just rhetoric by following the Akbayan lawmakers and releasing his SALN – something that he promised to do last week. No need to wait for a request from anyone; just release it, as the lawmakers did.

And he must tell all Cabinet members to do the same, before more genuinely reform-minded public officials beat them to it. Annual submission of the SALNs is required by law so preparation of the document won’t require any special or additional effort on the part of any public official.

Perhaps members of the Mayors for Good Governance can follow the lead of Akbayan. After all, Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo, who has joined M4GG, had ignored Martires’ order and released her SALN throughout her term as vice president.

Leaders of the House and the Senate can exhort their colleagues to do the same, particularly Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co. A construction company owned by Co’s relatives has been linked to questionable flood control deals. Yesterday, he came under fire even from the secretary of the interior and local government, who openly accused Co of a bribery attempt.

Co and other public officials shouldn’t wait for a court order or even media requests to release their SALNs. They should just do it.