Editorial: Updating the SALN

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

MANY public employees or officials who have been subjected to a lifestyle check laimed they won the lottery.

That surprising observation appears in a 2006 paper by then Assistant Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol, retrieved from the website of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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The ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona has raised questions about the effectiveness of using the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) to keep public officials from illegally amassing wealth.

Long before the trial, however, several shenanigans in the filing of the SALNs were already known to the ombudsman’s office, according to Deputy Ombudsman Apostol’s paper.

In “The Experience of Asset Declaration in the Philippines,” the official wrote that the anti-graft office has observed, among others, that some public officials: (1) fail or refuse to disclose business interests and financial connections; (2) record non-existent assets when they first submit a SALN; (3) justify sharp increases in their net worth by disposing of newly acquired assets at “fantastic selling prices”; or (4) record assets in the name of dummies.

And yes, some explain an increase in their net worth by claiming they’ve won the lottery.

These revelations make us less optimistic about the latest revisions in the SALN form.

Starting this year, public officials and employees who are required to submit the form before April 30 are supposed to include a detailed declaration of their personal and family expenses—everything from phone and other utility bills, to travel expenses, tuition, clothing and mortgage payments.

It’s sad that the campaign for transparency has come to this. The level of detail the new form requires speaks of a deep mistrust of public employees and officials in general.

Besides, all that detail won’t amount to much, unless submitted SALNs are regularly counter-checked, and those who have violated the rules are held accountable.

The present rules state that the SALN, once submitted, will be “evaluated to determine whether or not they have been properly accomplished.”

That, however, has not always kept inadequate forms from slipping through the government offices’ personnel or administrative units. For years, one of the most well-to-do councilors in Metro Cebu got away with declaring a lump sum of P100,000 as his and his spouse’s total assets, although their business interests and lifestyle alone indicated a fatter bottom line than that.

How can we, as a community, make the SALN submission a more meaningful process? What mix of rewards and punishments will encourage better compliance and create a climate of honest disclosure? Let’s hope we have a better chance of figuring that out, than winning the lottery.