House Speaker Bojie Dy Speaks on SALN Release
The House of Representatives members are open to crafting rules for the disclosure of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN)
President Bongbong Marcos recently appointed a new Ombudsman — former Department of Justice Secretary Boying Remulla. He was one of the 7 applicants for Ombudsman who made it to the shortlist submitted by the Judiciary and Bar Council (JBC) to the Chief Executive.
According to JBC, there was a total of 17 applicants for Ombudsman. The newly-appointed chief graft-buster succeeds former Ombudsman Samuel Martires who retired in July.
Following his appointment to the position, Ombudsman Boying Remulla announced that his office will issue a memorandum that will lift the restrictions on the public access to the SALN of the government officials. The said restrictions were implemented under the lead of Martires in 2020.
Recently, the Office of Ombudsman Boying Remulla issued the memo that reopens the public access to the SALN of the government officials. Under the new memo, there is no longer a need for the consent of the owner of the SALN before the document will be released.
The requester just needs to present a valid ID. The Ombudsman is the repository of the SALN of the president, the vice president, the officials of the Constitutional Offices, and the local government officials.
Recently, the chief of the House of Representatives also spoke on the SALN disclosure. Based on a report on Inquirer, Speaker Bojie Dy confirmed that the members of the lower chamber are willing to craft rules with regards to the release of the SALN.
According to the House Speaker, there are still no formal discussions about the crafting of the rules on the SALN disclosure but the members of the lower chamber are talking about it already. Based on the report, Dy stressed that the members are willing to come up with the rules.
“This is a good thing to discuss. During our break, we’ll discuss it thoroughly so that we can come up with a clear policy on how we will show support for releasing our SALNs,” the House Speaker said.
Recently, following the decision of the Ombudsman, Senator Robin Padilla asked the Senate Secretary for the disclosure of his SALN.