House panel to finalize guidelines on SALN release

THE five-man group formed to review the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) of members of the House of Representatives is yet to finalize the draft guidelines on the release of the SALNs.

In a text message, Bohol Representative Erico Aumentado said the House body will finalize its draft of rules and procedures by the second week of September.

"The committee will soon submit for plenary approval by the House of Representatives, the SALN rules and procedure," said Aumentado, who was appointed chairman of the panel.

Other members of the committee are Representatives Rodolfo Antonino (Nueva Ecija), Giorgidi Aggabao (Isabela), Tomas Apacible (Batangas), and Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro).

Aggabao said the committee will have to schedule another meeting before the final draft is submitted for the adoption of the plenary. 
 
"What I can say is that, the rules will not allow unfettered access to SALN. All requests for SALNs must be for legitimate purposes," he said, refusing to give out further details on the draft guidelines. 

Aggabao, however, admitted that the committee has not reviewed a single SALN filed by House members.
 
"We have not yet reviewed individual SALNs. We are only in the process of crafting the general rules and guidelines," he said.

Following the ouster of Chief Justice Renato Corona in May, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. formed a five-man committee to review if the SALNs filed by House members "are complete and in the proper form."

In December 2011, Corona was impeached by 188 members of the House for failure to truthfully disclose his SALNs, among other charges.

Since his ouster, at least 15 out of the 285-member House have released their SALNs to the public.

Those who volunteered to release their SALNs to the public are Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, Deputy Majority Leader Miro Quimbo, Representatives Sonny Angara (Aurora) and Teddy Baguilat (Ifugao), and the seven-member progressive party-list bloc.
 
House Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap earlier told reporters that the committee "will review all SALNs in the House, including the SALNs of about 3,000 employees aside from the SALNs of the members." (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)