The filing of the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of the officials is a requirement

and is under the law. However, the office of the Ombudsman had to stop opening it to the public for
some major reasons. Since political corruption is already rampant in our country even back then, the
disclosure of the SALN of the politicians seems to be the cause of bribery and extortion. These two are
distinct yet related corrupt activities that can pose a significant risk to social welfare and can block the
attainment of ethical political standards. Moreover, the disclosure of the SALN among the officials could
possibly open floodgates of public interest over personal interest to the politicians. How come? Best
example is extortion. In instance, a certain person knows that a certain politician did not include all of its
assets in filing its SALN, so he or she threatens this politician and forcing it to pay money to him or her in
exchange of not releasing the politician’s SALN to the public as well as its dishonesty and inadequacy. I
think the Office of the Ombudsman is just applying the “Data Privacy Act” and protecting the officials
from cases like this because some will have a personal interest over their wealth and property.
Surprisingly, corruption is now getting worse even were facing this pandemic. The releasing of SALN and
the conducting of lifestyle check among the politicians was not always the solution to fight corruption,
because in some cases, it makes it even worse because of personal interest. Therefore, the advantages
on restricting the public access of the SALN of the politicians are to protect their private life and to avoid
having a personal interest towards them that could possibly lead to corrupt activities.

Although we all have the right to know the wealth or the so-called SALN of the politicians, is it the
reason why some are motivated to do such an unethical actions like engaging in corrupt activities? On
the other hand, the non-disclosure of SALN also has its disadvantages. As a citizen of this country we
have the “Freedom of Information” such as having a right to be informed about the government’s
decision and actions including the SALN of the politicians. Yes we all have the right to know the SALN of
the officials to know whether they are honest or not, or if they are corrupt or not. Wouldn’t it be unfair
if they hide it to the general public and keep it as a secret from themselves? We would not know which
officials are fulfilling their ethical principles and which are not. As a result, people would get
disappointed and highly-unfavored and it could lead to political warfare. It is also said that not all of the
SALN of the politicians are comprehensive and that the new guidelines of the issuance of SALN were not
followed correctly and directly by some politicians. Supposedly, politicians should put all of the
necessary information in the SALN to avoid inaccuracy and misinformation. So, errors and incomplete
information in the SALN will result to misleading evaluation and investigation. Where is the transparency
and the accountability? Would it be hard for us to know the truth? What if they are protecting those
corrupt officials from their dishonest ways?

You see, I didn’t rely on only one-sided story because the non-disclosure or the restriction of public
access of the SALN of the politicians could have a positive and a negative effect. Whether the SALN of
the politicians are disclosed or non-disclosed, the truth is corruption will still be practiced. It is really
difficult to combat corruption and people trusted the Office of the Ombudsman to fight for it by using
the SALN of the officials. But, it didn’t became effective because of such cases. It is still sad that some of
the guilty corrupt officials were still not yet accountable with their actions. How are we supposed to
attain a good governance in our country if politicians didn’t perform their responsibilities ethically? Will
the latest decision of the Office of the Ombudsman will help slowly eradicate the political engagement
of doing unethical actions in our country such as graft, corruption, extortion, and bribery? We’ll find out.