Court Officials To Release 2011 Asset Statements

The Supreme Court (SC) approved recently the public disclosure of assets statements of judges and justices, but guidelines for such release will have to be discussed in a special en banc session first.

All SC justices, except for Lucas Bersamin and Diosdado Peralta who were both out for a pre-scheduled lecture, approved the move to disclose their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for 2011.

The decision to disclose their SALN effectively nullifies the SC’s May 2, 1989 resolution during the time of then Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, who was appointed to the High Court by the late President Corazon Aquino.

The 1992 resolution required court officials to submit their respective SALN before the Office of the Clerk of Court, and which made it unlawful for any person to obtain or use any statement filed under Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, for (a) any purpose contrary to morals or public policy, or (b) any commercial purpose other than by news and communications media for dissemination to the general public.

“Let’s not forget, precedent-setting ang ginawa ni CJ Corona to issue a waiver (Corona’s signing of the waiver was a precedent setting),” acting SC spokesperson Gleo Guerra said when asked whether the court’s decision to release the SALN of justices had anything to do with ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona’s call for other top government officials to also issue a waiver on the confidentiality of their bank accounts, which was an issue raised during his impeachment trial.

Guerra said disclosure of justices’ full SALN was a “collective decision” of the court and not just an initiative of Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who was then acting Chief Justice following Corona’s ouster by a majority vote of the 23-member Senate.

She said, meanwhile, that the justices also resolved to take up during the June 19 session the issue of whether Corona is entitled to get his benefits despite his impeachment.

Corona was convicted by the Senate impeachment court for failure to declare in his SALN his $2.4 million worth of dollar and P80-million peso deposits, which he said were co-mingled funds of his family and his wife’s family-owned Basa-Guidote Enterprises, Inc. funds. /MP