BY RAYMOND AFRICA and ASHZEL HACHERO
SEN. Panfilo Lacson yesterday said politicians who refuse to release their Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) “have something to hide.”
He made the statement a day after fellow presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he would not make public his SALN if he wins in the May 9 elections. Later on Monday, Marcos backtracked again and said he would release the document. Marcos in October said he would make public his SALN in the name of transparency and accountability in the government.
Lacson and opposition presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo have been making public their SALNs.
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, who is also seeking the presidency, said he has no problem his SALN public because he has nothing to hide.
Moreno also said it is President Duterte’s right to say who he thinks are unfit for the presidency.
The President on Monday night said said he would make public “issues” about some of the presidential aspirants. Duterte, whose daughter Sara is Marcos’ running mate, said he is not politicking but it is his obligation to tell voters what he knows about the aspirants, including one he described as corrupt.
“Walang personalan ito because obligasyon ko lang na kailangan masabi ko sa tao. Pero sa lahat ng nakikita ko, para sa akin, well, except one, mayroong issue na hindi maganda (This is nothing personal because it’s my obligation to tell the public… From what I see, all, except for one, have negative issues),” he said without giving names.
Duterte earlier called Marcos a spoiled brat and weak leader.
Lacson, in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, was asked what he thinks of politicians who do not want their SALNs made public.
“May tinatago (They are hiding something). I just released my SALN yesterday,” Lacson said.
Lacson and the rest of the 23 senators, including presidential aspirant Emmanuel Pacquiao, have been releasing their SALNs every year.
Pacquiao ranks second with the biggest net worth next only to Sen. Cynthia Villar as of December 2020. Lacson ranks 16th among the senators, with a net worth of P58.3 million.
Lacson has always been saying he will be fully transparent if he wins the presidency by signing a waiver on his rights to bank secrecy on his first day in office.
Duterte, in his “Talk to the People” address on Monday night, said one presidential aspirant appears clean but Chinese businessmen have reported to him how allegedly excessively corrupt the person is and how the person allegedly extorted from them.
Duterte said another aspirant does not deserve to be president at all because the person is “hopeless” and all that person’s decisions and actions are wrong.
“Mayroon naman dito na hopelessly, I think, hindi dapat ma-presidente, medyo kulang talaga. Kulang na kulang. Every day, may sasabihin siya na mali o maski the fundamentals (There is one who is hopelessly, I think, that person should not be a president because the person is kind of lacking. The person is really lacking. Every day, the person will say something wrong, even the fundamentals),” he said.
The President said he will reveal more in due time, or a month before the elections.
“I will personally name the candidates and maybe what’s wrong with them that the people need to know because you are electing a president,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
Last year, Duterte said an aspirant is a cocaine user.
‘NO SHIRKER’
Robredo denied her critics’ claims that she tried to evade an interview with panelists of radio station DZRH, saying she is not one to back away from such a challenge regardless if the ones asking the questions are her known critics.
“I have nothing to hide so why would I be afraid?” she said in Filipino, talking with reporters in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay last Monday.
Among DZRH’s panelists is political science professor Antonio Contreras, a known Robredo critic.
She said if the conduct of the interview is not done professionally, it would not be her loss.
In a social media post, the Vice President explained that she was invited to an interview with DZRH which was initially set earlier this month and it was supposed to be part of her schedule. However, Robredo said she was later told by the radio station that the date was being moved and the new schedule “was already in conflict with ours, as I had other commitments lined up.”
The Vice President then offered another date “if they are willing to adjust,” and stressed that she is always prepared to face an interview.
The radio station’s manager Cesar Chavez has already confirmed that Robredo would participate the forum on February 2 and explained that the original schedule, from January 4 to 14, had to be moved because many of DZRH’s personnel contracted COVID-19.
Marcos earlier declined to participate in the interview conducted by veteran television journalist Jessica Soho, accusing her of being “biased” against the Marcos family.
CORRUPTION
Marcos, in an interview with DZRH, he said he will fight corruption in government if elected as the country’s next president.
He said he will make sure the budget process and its use will be fully
Marcos also reiterated he never used illegal drugs.
“Hindi ako pwede diyan. Ang lifestyle na yan ay para lang sa walang ginagawa, walang trabaho (It’s not for me. That kind of lifestyle is only for those who have nothing better to do, or who have no work),” he added.
Marcos Jr.underwent drug test last year following Duterte’s statement about a cocaine user.
Marcos also said said he will abide by whatever the courts will decide regarding pending cases on their family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.
But he said the cases no longer involve his family but the Philippine government.
“Sa pamilyang Marcos ay hindi na kami involved sa mga kasong yan. If you will look at the judgments, may mga judgment na kontra sa amin pero nasa America ‘yun. At ang kanilang sinasabi ang dapat sumagot ay ang Philippine government (The Marcos family is no longer involved. If you will look at the judgments, there are those that against us but that’s in the US.And what they are saying is that it should be the Philippine government to answer),” he added.
The Marcos’ family is accused of amassing billions in ill-gotten wealth during the presidency of the family patriarch, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government, the agency created in the aftermath of the 1986 EDSA People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, said it has already recovered more than P172 billion of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies while another P125 billion is still under litigation.
CAMPAIGN DONATIONS
On the heels of Moreno’s admission that he kept his excess campaign funds from the 2016 polls, the Commission on Elections said there is existing policy on what candidates should do about surplus donations.
“There are no rules requiring its disposition in any specific way. This means there is no rule saying you have to return them to individual donors or use it for some charitable purposes,” said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.
“It follows that there is really nothing wrong to hanging on to unspent campaign funds,” he added.
Jimenez, however, said candidates with excess campaign funds must deal with the requirements of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The only rule there is actually one issued by the BIR, which states very clearly that unspent campaign funds shall be treated as income and shall be subject to the payment of appropriate income tax,” said Jimenez.
Under Comelec Resolution No. 9991 or the Omnibus Rules and Regulations Governing Campaign Finance and Disclosure, “any unexpended balance from any contribution to candidate or party, also known as excess contributions, shall be subject to income tax”.
BIR Regulation No. 7-2011, meanwhile, provides that excess campaign contributions shall be considered as subject to income tax and should therefore be included in the candidate’s taxable income as stated in his/her Income Tax Return filed for the said taxable year.
Over the weekend, Moreno admitted that he still has the P50 million excess campaign funds stemming from his failed 2016 senatorial bid.
Moreno, however, assured that he paid a total of P9.7 million in taxes to the BIR because of the excess campaign funds. — With Jocelyn Montemayor, Wendell Vigilia and Gerard Naval
