Ombudsman Martires unyielding to calls for release of Duterte’s SALNs

Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Thursday maintained that President Rodrigo Duterte's Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth would not be released, following a policy issued last year on restricting the public's access to SALNs.

During the deliberations on the proposed P3.967-billion budget of the Office of the Ombudsman, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate asked Martires for his take on the recent pronouncement of the Palace that it is up to the Ombudsman if the SALNs of Duterte will be released.

Martires underscored that he would not depart from Memorandum Circular No. 1, which was issued in September 2020.

"There are conditions there on when we should release the SALN of a particular government official. In the absence of compliance with any of these provisions, we are not going to release the SALN," Martirez said.

Under the said circular, the SALN will be furnished to the requester if:

• he/she is the declarant or the duly authorized representative of the declarant;
• the request is upon lawful order of the court in relation to a pending case; and
• the request is made by the Ombudsman's Field Investigation Office/Bureau/Unit (FIO/FIB/FIU) for the purpose of conducting fact-finding investigation

The President last released his SALN publicly in 2017.

Willing to be removed

Martires said he would not yield to calls from the public to release the SALN of any public official as he would violate the policy enforced last year, adding that yielding to public opinion is not part of his job description.

The Ombudsman noted that he is even willing to be removed from his post as a result of standing by the policy.

"No matter how much criticism I will receive, even if I will be bashed, even if I will be removed from office, I will not butt in to that," Martires said.

"I am sorry to say that. I am willing to be removed from office to defend the memorandum circular I issued," he added.

He even questioned why it seems the public is very much interested in the SALNs of government officials, especially the president and the vice president.

"Pinagtataka ko naman po, bakit napaka-interesado natin sa SALN ng presidente at bise presidente? Bakit hindi tayo interesado sa SALN ng ibang opisyal ng gobyerno? I really do not know what is the purpose of these people asking for the SALN of the president, specifically, and the vice president," Martires said.

"What is in (those) offices? Is it only the president and vice president who’s capable of corruption? Isn’t corruption starting in the grassroots, from the ranks of the clerks?" he added.

Zarate, for his part, said the release of SALNs is merely for transparency and accountability. — RSJ, GMA News