EDITORIAL - Because they can

Following in the footsteps of his parents, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo is now under fire for assets that he reportedly failed to declare in his official Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. The failure concealed a considerable increase in his wealth since 2002. President Arroyo’s eldest son said he had declared all his assets and that he had transferred ownership of a $1.32-million California home to a company called Beach Way Park LLC, where he owns 40 percent of the shares. This was his explanation for not declaring the property in his SALN.

VERA Files, which filed the report on Mikey Arroyo’s assets, disputed his claim, pointing out that the California property was in the name of his wife Angela as of last Monday, and that there was no Beach Way Park LLC registered with the assessor’s office in San Mateo County where the property is located.

Arroyo refused to identify the other shareholders in Beach Way Park, saying they were private citizens. He also said his failure to declare the property in his SALN was due to his misunderstanding of the requirements in filing the declaration. Asked about the dramatic rise in his income from P5 million in 2002 to P99 million in 2008, he said he received generous wedding gifts and donations to his congressional campaign. He refused to identify the generous souls.

A retired military general is currently on trial for plunder for receiving gifts from suppliers doing business with the Armed Forces when he was the comptroller. Perhaps a new law should be crafted, detailing the gifts that must be turned down by public servants and all members of the First Family. The prohibited gifts should include $20,000 dinners, corporate shares, waterfront homes and condominium units.

Arroyo insisted everything he had done was legal and aboveboard and his critics should simply sue him. The attitude is not surprising. Confronted with accusations of impropriety, those in power in this administration have a standard explanation: because they can.