MANILA – Malacañang is leaving it to the Office of the Ombudsman to release President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
After Vice President Leni Robredo requested Duterte to make his net worth public if he is truly serious about reducing government corruption, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this statement.
“The stance of the Office of the President has been clear and consistent: We leave it to the Office of the Ombudsman, an independent constitutional body, to release to the public President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN),” Roque said in a press statement on Monday.
He noted that Duterte had already complied his constitutional obligation to submit or file his SALN, and that individuals who wished to examine it may do so by contacting the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Interested parties may therefore wish to write a formal communication to the Office of the Ombudsman, which has copies of SALNs of all public officials, asking for a copy of the said document,” he added.
The Office of the Ombudsman restricted access to public officials’ SALNs in September of last year by demanding the statement’s owner’s consent before a SALN request could be assessed.
Duterte’s recent SALN, which was made public in 2017, reported a net worth of PHP28.5 million.
Robredo stated on Sunday that Duterte should set an example by disclosing his SALN.
“The SALN is just one of the many ways through which you can prove that you are truly transparent and show you are not corrupt,” she said in her weekly radio show.
Robredo reminded Duterte that the Commission on Audit (COA), not the vice president, is in charge of auditing government agencies.
She defended the COA after it earned Duterte’s ire due to audit findings which revealed there were billions of mismanaged and unused funds that could have been used for the government’s Covid-19 pandemic response.
Duterte previously threatened to “audit all of government” if he run and win the vice presidency in 2022.
He urged COA to “reconfigure” its audit reports in order to avoid the public perception that identified government institutions committed irregularities.
He also requested the state auditing authority to clarify in its report that the inadequacies discovered do not imply that a state department is engaging in corrupt activities.
