SALN, different FOI releases on maintain as Malacañang course of beneath ‘overview’

This comes because the Marcos administration guarantees transparency

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is holding the discharge of paperwork requested by the Freedom of Info (FOI) system, together with Statements of Belongings, Liabilities and Web Value (SALNs), attributable to a overview of the method, the Palace information workplace informed Rappler.

“With a view to make sure the consistency with the forthcoming up to date pointers, the ODESLA [Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Legal Affairs] has suggested that the discharge of FOl-requested paperwork — together with the SALNs — be withheld pending the completion of the mentioned overview,” the Malacañang Information Workplace informed Rappler in a letter on Tuesday, January 6.

It was a response to this reporter’s request for the SALNs of a number of Cupboard-level officers. Based on the information workplace, ODESLA is “within the technique of updating and reviewing the present Individuals’s FOl Handbook (FOl Handbook)” launched in 2021, in the course of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

Malacañang is the custodian or repository company of SALNs filed by Cupboard members, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, heads of government-owned or -controlled companies, and different nationwide govt officers. That is in response to a 2015 memorandum round of the Civil Service Fee. The CSC, beneath the federal government code of conduct, is initially the place these officers ought to file their SALNs till the round assigned by Malacañang.

Because of this regardless of the administration’s promise of extra transparency, the coverage nonetheless set limits, significantly within the case of Malacañang itself. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s SALN has already been made public as a result of the custodian is the Workplace of the Ombudsman, which reversed the Duterte-time coverage of withholding SALNs’ launch.

Whereas Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla’s coverage reversal was a welcome improvement, it solely lined SALNs in his workplace’s custody.

The discharge of lawmakers’ SALNs stays voluntary because the custodians of the paperwork are their respective chambers. All senators have voluntarily launched their SALNs and whereas some Home lawmakers have opted to reveal their SALNs, these of pertinent lawmakers equivalent to former speaker Martin Romualdez nonetheless stay a secret. The similar goes for the judiciary, because the Supreme Court docket is the custodian of SALNs.

In 2023, Marcos signed Presidential Memorandum Round No. 15 which lengthened the record of FOI exemptions. Rappler has repeatedly skilled being denied FOI requests by govt companies which cited MC 15.

Probably the most usually cited exemptions are Part 9g which exempts “requested info [that] pertains to feedback and disclosures on pending circumstances in judicial proceedings,” and Part 3 which exempts “info regarding legislation enforcement and safety of public and private security.”

Resulting from these exemptions, Rappler has been denied entry to info, for instance, on the drug warfare investigation, and the bills of the federal government sustaining a seized Marcos ill-gotten asset. – Rappler.com