Corona, justices urged to make SALN public

MANILA, Philippines – A non-government organization advocating transparency and accountability in government office called on Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and other justices to publicly disclose their statements of assets and liabilities and net worth.

Kaya Natin Movement convenor Harvey Keh said they already have the summaries of the SALNs of Justices Antonio Carpio and Maria Lourdes Sereno, which have been posted at the group's website.

Keh said they have already sent letters to the other justices who said that the matter will be taken up during the SC en banc session next week.

"We have sent letters to the justices Brion, Del Castillo, De Castro and Abad, asking permission to publish their respective SALNs at the Kaya Natin website," he added.

At the Kaya Natin website, Justice Carpio's SALN showed that he has a net worth of P47.2 million while Justice Sereno has P17.7 million net worth.

Keh also reiterated his appeal to Chief Justice Corona to "follow the examples of Justices Carpio and Sereno."

"There is now a cloud of doubt surrounding the Supreme Court...if the Chief Justice has nothing to hide and is not afraid to face the charges against him, be transparent," he said.

"Hindi naman na masama kung mayaman sila... kung accumulated ang wealth above board, there's nothing wrong with that but if you're hesitant to show your SALN, it puts a cloud of doubt  on our leaders," Keh added.

For his part, Quezon Rep. Erin Tanada III, spokesperson of the prosecution panel for impeachment trial, said the justices and not other government officials to follow the Constitution which orders them to disclose their SALN.

"Just follow the constitution, but they (justices) also interpret the Constitution and that's the difficulty we have now," Tanada said.