Palace: Duterte SALN talks to be set aside over 'Rolly' response
MANILA, Philippines — Palace on Wednesday said talks on President Rodrigo Duterte's wealth disclosures will have to be set aside as he responds to the aftermath of a super typhoon, amid calls for the release of the public documents that had been pending since 2018.
Duterte's statements of assets, liabilities and net worth from 2018 and 2019 have yet to be made accessible after the ombudsman's move in September to limit public's access to it.
In a television interview, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said he has yet to bring up the matter to Duterte and insisted that the leader is not hiding anything with the delay in the release.
"There was no opportunity to do it when we last met because it was all focused on Typhoon Rolly," he told CNN Philippines' The Source. "I don't think there is a conscious effort to conceal because he has complied with it."
The issue of Duterte's unreleased SALNs had long existed before "Rolly" hit the Philippines and while it has left an extensive damage, the concerned body in possession of the documents — the ombudsman — is not in any way involved in disaster response.
It was also Ombudsman Samuel Martires who had sought to explain that restricting access to SALNs was partly due to the documents being "weaponized" or used for politics.
"All he is saying is, let’s respect the guidelines issued by the ombudsman and let’s comply with those guidelines," Roque said.
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in October said they have asked for copies of Duterte's SALNs but was all only stalled or ignored by the ombudsman until its order came.
PCIJ added that Duterte is "breaking a long tradition" of presidents disclosing their annual wealth even without requests from the media.
The apparent delay for over two years of making Duterte's disclosures public runs counter to his Freedom of Information executive order in 2016, which requires those in government to "file and make available for scrutiny" their SALNs.
His SALN in 2017, the last to be made public, showed that his net worth was at P28.5 million, an increase of P4 million since he assumed the presidency.
Just last month, Duterte ordered an all-out probe in the entire government for his remaining years in office, fed up with corruption allegations that had originated from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. amounting to P15 billion that was said to have been amassed by its officials.
Roque said another meeting with the president is set for tomorrow Thursday, where he said he would bring up the matter.
"Right now, he wants to make sure that, number one, basic necessities be received by the victims of this typhoon and everything else are not considered as important as the rehabilitation effort right now," he said.
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