House Spox Reacts To Acting Davao Mayor Baste Duterte’s Accusation vs. Speaker Martin Romualdez
DUTERTE FAMILY – The House Spokesperson dared the Dutertes to disclose their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth or SALNs to the public if they truly believe in accountability.
The order of President Bongbong for a “lifestyle check” among the government officials have sparked the different views towards SALN disclosure again. Previously, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte expressed support to the President’s order but she has additional suggestions.
According to Vice Pres. Sara Duterte, the “lifestyle check” order of Marcos Jr. should include all the appointed officials of the government. She also stressed that the investigation should be “deep dive” and should not settle to the presentation of SALNs only.
Furthermore, the Vice President said that the “lifestyle check” among the government officials should expose their “dummies”. However, according to her office, there is a “procedure” for the request of Duterte’s SALN.
Amid the talks about SALN, acting Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte accused House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s SALN to allegedly have a P2-billion increase in just three (3) years. The brother of Vice Pres. Duterte claimed that Romualdez’s SALN allegedly states only P200 million in 2022 but has reached P3 billion now.
The House of Representatives defended the Speaker. House spokesperson Atty. Princess Abante previously stressed that the SALN of Speaker Martin Romualdez is “open for proper scrutiny” following the question of acting Davao Mayor Baste Duterte.
Based on a report on Inquirer, the statement of the acting Davao Mayor is allegedly “another baseless attempt to smear” the House Speaker. According to the House Spox, the figures cited by Duterte are “nothing but absurd fabrications”.
Abante also claimed that the Duterte family allegedly safeguard their SALNs and the acting Davao Mayor’s statement is supposedly an irony. She also called the move as “hypocrisy of the highest order”.
“What makes this even more ironic is that the Dutertes are known for keeping their own SALNs a closely guarded secret, refusing to make them public despite years in power. Now they dare lecture others about transparency?” the House Spox said.
According to Atty. Princess Abante, if the Duterte family truly believe in transparency, they should release their own SALNs first. Based on the report, the House Spox claimed that the move of the Dutertes is allegedly to cover up their supposed “own failures”.
“The speaker’s SALN, unlike theirs, is filed in accordance with law and open for proper scrutiny. If the Dutertes truly believe in accountability, they should start by releasing their own SALNs to the public, instead of inventing lies to cover up their own failures,” Abante said.
Previously, following his order, Malacañang confirmed that Marcos Jr. and all executive officials are ready for a “lifestyle check”.