"President Aquino’s deputy spokesman Abigail Valte said members of Congress cannot be compelled to submit their SALns for BIR examination since BIR is part of the Executive which is co-equal with Congress as branches of government. That was not the argument that the Palace used against former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona who was head of the Judiciary which is also co-equal with that of the Executive. The Palace instigated its allies in Congress to impeach Corona based partly on allegations that he did not report all of his assets in his yearly SALn. Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares even testified before the Senate impeachment court trying Corona that his SALn bore discrepancies on the value of his declared properties, even extending the BIR probe to members of his family. Corona during the trial surrendered his SALn which became the basis of his conviction and eventual removal from office. Some of the judges in the Senate court then said that since Corona was removed from office as a result of discrepancies in his SALN, other government officials should also open up their financial records for the sake of fairness and transparency. Now, Valte said the 300 members of the House of Representatives including those sitting as partylist representatives who enjoys equal share of the controversial “pork barrel” spending, that they are not compelled to have their SALns scrutinized by the BIR"
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 01:59:24 +0000
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