Sereno and the SALn law

Now that the House prosecution team in the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona and their friends, in and out of the impeachment court, have succeeded in prying out (yes, Sir, they pried it out since there is an existing Supreme Court (SC) ruling dated 1989 yet
which prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of such a document) the Chief Magistrate’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities and networth (SALn), it behooves them to show their SALns as well without any further prodding from the public or anybody else. That holds true for the senator-judges, members of the high tribunal and, of course, P-Noy and his entire Cabinet. And that is just for starters.


It is not fair for the public to be misled into believing that Corona’s entries in his SALn, ITR and other “proofs” of income and assets, alone if these do not match per the prosecution’s interpretations are proof positive that he has been lying or, worse, amassed unexplained wealth and therefore “unfit” to hold public office. All others, especially those in the highest levels of government, should have their finances as stated in their SALns disclosed as well. They should not wait to be impeached as in Corona’s case or for researchers or reporters to ask them to. They should do so automatically.


That is, if we are to believe the prosecutors as they peddle the advice that the SALn is such a critical if not “sacred” document that its disclosure or non-disclosure, not to mention its authenticity, can already pin down a public official as “unfit” to hold office. In fact, if the prosecution is so fixated with the SALn entries as its “best evidence,” then they should already amend the existing SALn Law and incorporate all the suppositions which it has been peddling publicly to obviate anymore misuse of the SALn.


Or even the ITR and other possible sources of income to ensure that whatever loopholes found in any of the laws on incomes and finances are finally expunged from the statutes. This is the essence of P-Noy’s “daang matuwid” initiative — transparency and accountability at the fullest.


For example, if non-disclosure is a major concern then pro-impeachment legislators should now insist that such is automatic and cannot be proscribed or diluted under any guise. Too, that a non-extendible time within which an official’s SALn should be so disclosed be incorporated in the amendments as well. Then, if P-Noy and the Liberal Party still need additional means to pin down the recalcitrants and want the SALn to reflect all the incomes and assets of any public official then the same should also be specifically indicated in the proposed SALn Law revisions.


Otherwise, the SALn Law will continue to be a misleading and incomplete recitation of a public official’s finances and thus an inconclusive proof as far as unexplained wealth and “unfitness” for public office is concerned.


Which brings us to our other point. Since Associate Supreme Court Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno has taken pains to show to all and sundry that she is P-Noy’s faithful advocate as far as the “transparency and accountability” campaign is concerned having issued the summary of her SALn (she did this with Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio upon the prodding not prying of Harvey Keh) in the run up to Corona’s impeachment she and her faithful adherents, in and out of the high tribunal, should now urge her to disclose her full SALn. In so doing, she will be able to disprove the critics that she “concealed” the alleged P25 million professional fee she got as part of the country’s legal team in the Piatco and Fraport arbitration cases in the international arbitration tribunals in Washington DC and Singapore.


Earlier, our paper managed to get documents showing that indeed Sereno collected P25 million ($580,000) for her work with former Associate Justice Feliciano in those arbitration cases. The documents showed that she received $324,674 (P13.9 million) for her work in the Piatco case before the Singapore tribunal and another $254,000 (P10.9 million) for the Fraport case in Washington DC. To think that in her SALn summary Justice Sereno only disclosed an income of P17 million, more or less, from the time she got appointed to the high tribunal as P-Noy’s first appointee.