Manila: The Catholic clergy is urging Philippine President Benigno Aquino to be more transparent with regards to his personal wealth.
It says the nation’s leader should set an example among officials of the government.
At the heels of a dramatic impeachment trial that ended with the constitutional ouster of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona over undisclosed bank accounts, Father Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said leading by example is one effective way to promote integrity in the government.
“For the government to be credible in its campaign for transparency, it should be led by no less than President Benigno Aquino III,” he said.
During the impeachment trial, Aquino urged the chief justice to come clean on his bank deposits and assets to be more transparent with regards to his actual wealth.
But Gariguez said how can Aquino lead the country effectively if the President himself is not open with regards to his actual personal wealth.
“He is strongly pushing transparency but he doesn’t want to sign a waiver of his bank accounts and other assets,” Gariguez said over Radyo Veritas, a Catholic church-owned radio station.
He said that if the President cannot “walk the talk” in terms of transparency and accountability, the government’s enthusiasm to root out corruption in the government will eventually falter and lose steam.
“His [Aquino] supposed good governance campaign or what his administration calls ‘daang matuwid’ (straight path) will only be a flash in the pan,” he said.
Aquino on Friday had said he will not sign a waiver to open his bank accounts for public scrutiny, blatantly breaking a pledge he made in 2010 when he was campaigning for the presidency.
Waiver is enough
According to the President, the waiver he had signed in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) should be enough.
Aside from Aquino, a scion of a land-owning family, other top government officials, including Cabinet members, are also being urged to sign a waiver allowing public scrutiny on their bank accounts.
During the impeachment trial last week, 20 of the 23 Senators sitting as an tribunal, convicted the chief justice for betraying public trust and culpable violation of the constitution.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had said Corona’s “deliberate act of excluding substantial assets from his SALN constitutes a culpable violation of the Constitution.”
Disparities in the SALN is largely used by probers determine if an official is corrupt or has unexplained wealth.
