SALN issue pits SC vs. BIR’s Kim Henares

The Supreme Court's public information office on Thursday denied Internal Revenue commissioner Kim Henares' statement that the court's justices have exempted themselves from the rule requiring full disclosure of Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

"The SC has never said they are exempt from the SALN requirement nor that they are creating a new rule for themselves," SC public information head Theodore Te said in an emailed statement.

A report on the Philippine Daily Inquirer has quoted Henares as saying that the Supreme Court justices have been "creating an exception for themselves" for not heeding to Bureau of Internal Revenue's request.

In a resolution last month, the Supreme Court en banc denied Henares' request for copies of the justices' SALN due to "lack of sufficient basis."

SC denies Henares' SALN request



In his statement, Te noted that "[m]embers of the media and civil society, including law students, have been able to obtain copies of various SALNs of the Justices is proof enough that the SC Justices are not hiding anything."

Te added that rejecting the BIR's request "must be contextualized" based on Henares' reason for her demand.

On her request dated February 10, 2014, Henares said the purpose of obtaining the justices' SALNs was for "tax investigation purposes pursuant to... the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 and in relation to the Ma'am Arlene Controversy in the judiciary."

"Ma'am Arlene,” described in earlier news reports as the judiciary's version of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, first came into national consciousness through Jarius Bondoc's column in the Philippine Star last year.

According to Bondoc's column, "Ma'am Arlene" throws birthday parties for appellate court justices and trial court judges and finances their family trips abroad, among other things, in exchange for their favors in cases.

The Supreme Court has already formed a panel to investigate the alleged influence-peddling in the judiciary. —Rouchelle Dinglasan/KBK, GMA News