Palace to release soon SALNs of Cabinet members

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter
Malacañang announced on Wednesday that it will soon release the summaries of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALNs) for 2017 of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Cabinet members.
“I am already calling Assistant Secretary (Kristian R.) Ablan. It is a traditional practice to release the summary of the SALNs of the President and the rest of the Cabinet members,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry L. Roque, Jr. said in an interview with Palace reporters via Facebook Live on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Ablan is an assistant secretary at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) and director of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Program.
In a press briefing in February this year, Mr. Ablan said he would recommend to the Office of the President (OP) the immediate public disclosure of the SALNs of government officials.
“We will recommend to proactively disclose the SALNs of officials. The recommendation will include a manifestation that SALN is one of the most frequently requested documents,” he said when asked why the current administration was imposing another level of bureaucracy on the distribution of SALN copies to the media.
The Office of the Ombudsman released on May 11 Mr. Duterte’s SALN, which showed his net worth increasing by P1.1 million in 2017 to P28.54 million from P27.42 million in 2016.
In a press release, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) reminded all public officials and employees to file their sworn SALNs for 2017 by April 30, noting that the annual filing is “required under the 1987 Philippine Constitution and under Republic Act No. 6713, also known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.”