Why Are Philippine Lawmakers Disclosing Their Net Worths?

As the Marcos administration's burgeoning war on corruption wages on, a handful of lawmakers have taken it upon themselves to cultivate a culture of transparency among those in the legislature, as more of their colleagues are getting accused of allegedly swindling state funds via the cracks shown in their ultra-lavish lives of excess.

So, these are mostly progressive-leaning lawmakers who have publicly disclosed their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worths (SALNs), namely: returning Gabriela Women's Party-List Rep. Sarah Elago, Kabataan Party-List Rep. Renee Co, ACT Teachers Party-List Rep Antonio Tinio, and Lamanggagawa Party-List Rep. Eli San Fernando. On the Senate side, only Senator Risa Hontiveros has shared her SALN with the media as she tries to walk the talk on her own calls for transparency and accountability amid the bombshell that is the flood control contract fiasco.

To bring you up to speed, recently, the Anti-Money Laundering Council has seized more than P4 billion in assets related to those involved in the anomalous contracts linked to substandard or fictitious flood control projects, with even more set to be seized. The President had formed an independent commission to investigate those behind irregularities in flood-control contracts that have allegedly fattened the pockets of prominent lawmakers and government officials. 

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These moves stemmed from newly minted Ombudsman Boying Remulla's decision to lift restrictions on public access to SALNs, which in turn reversed a policy that limited these disclosures since the Duterte administration. This was done via Memorandum Circular No. 3, issued on October 14, which allows anyone to request copies of these SALNs subject to safeguards that balance transparency and data privacy. The order revokes Samual Martires' (Remulla's predecessor) 2020 memo that required notarized consent from the official concerned before these statements could be released to the public.

Under the recent memo, those who want to request copies must file a prescribed request form with valid identification. Take note that information requested can't be used for commercial purposes or other uses that may lead to harassment, security threats, or even fictitious personalities. And if you're a media personality or a research institution that intends to publish materials based on information found in these SALNs, the Ombudsman must be furnished with copies or accessible links to their pieces within five days of release.

Under Republic Act No. 6713, senators and congressmen file their SALNs with their respective chambers, while members of the judiciary submit their own to the Office of the Court Administration and the Supreme Court's Clerk of Court.

The Ombudsman is the official repository of SALNs of the President, Vice President, and heads of Constitutional officials. The Office of the President, on the other hand, holds those of the Cabinet, presidential appointees, and high-ranking military officials.

Remulla had vowed to "restore transparency" and design clear guidelines to bar both abuse and obstruction to the public's right to information.

Net Worth of Philippine Lawmakers

So, going back to the lawmakers, broken down, these are how much the aforementioned legislators are worth: Elago has a total net worth of P1.039 million, including real property assets worth P101,552; personal items, including a Toyota Innova, a laptop, a smartphone, and clothes worth about P1.017 million. She also has liabilities worth P79,752.

The youngster lawmaker Renee Co has a modest net worth of P280,000 with no real properties declared, expenses from 2018 to 2025 worth P20,000 on clothes and shoes, P120,000 on gadgets, P120,000 in bank savings, and P20,000 in on-hand cash. She also doesn't have any business interests nor any relatives in the government.

Rep. Antonio Tinio has the highest net worth among the progressive legislators at P10.93 million and the largest number of declared properties with one house and lot, a condo, and two parking slots worth about P15 million. He also declared four additional real properties, two residential and two farmlands, worth about P4.8 million. He noted that these were either inherited or donated to him. On the personal items side, Tinio has three motorbikes worth between P80,000 to P120,000 and household appliances and gadgets worth about P300,000. The ACT Teachers Party-List Representative currently has P32,817 in the bank, and his wife has P668,676, for a combined value of P719,582.24. He doesn't have any business interests or liabilities.

Moving on to Kamanggagawa Party-List Rep. Eli San Fernando, the neophyte lawmaker has residential property worth P2.2 million, personal properties amounting to P48,000 in cash, totaling about P2.248 million in assets.

Senator Hontiveros has a total net worth of P18.98 million with three real properties worth P8.730 million; a 2014 Toyota Innova and a Toyota Fortuner 4X2 worth a total of P10.054 million. The senator is also a stockholder at Planet Dive, Inc., a board member at the New Rural Bank of San Leandro in Nueva Ecija, and a director at La Luna Corp.

"Broadly, it seems consistent with their interest to be seen as clean/progressive advocates. In itself, though this is clearly political positioning at best, it's about controlling their narratives and making sure political scrutiny doesn't land on them," Hansley Juliano, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, told Esquire Philippines in an interview.

Assistant Ombudsman and the office's spokesman Jose Dominic Clavano IV earlier said during a briefing that the new circular reinforces that constitutionally-mandated duty to uphold public accountability while respecting the privacy of individuals. 

Each SALN publicized will come with a watermark, control number, and disclaimer, with requesters required to shoulder reproduction and certification costs.

Following the new rule, Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. said his Cabinet would follow these reinstated rules and that he was "quite surprised" when his office learned how finicky it was to get copies of these SALNs.

"Again, my SALN will be available to whomever would like to [have it]," the President said. 

"If the ICI (Independent Commission for Infrastructure) asks us for [it], of course, I will give it to them. If the ombudsman asks, we will give it to them.”

Speaker Bojie Dy III said the House of Representatives is reviewing its own policy on the disclosure of SALNs and that the growing sentiment is that Congress is open to publicizing these.

“During our break, we’ll talk it over thoroughly so we can come up with clear guidelines on how we’ll show our support for releasing our SALNs,” he said during a radio interview.

Juliano added that these progressive lawmakers are just fulfilling their roles as stern transparency advocates for the opposition.

"They can use this to intimidate/pressure those who want to be seen as not tied to allegations to do what they did, but the next step still needs to be further systemic scrutiny and disclosure of liable names and actors."