Justices to open SALNs but not for the curious

BAGUIO CITY—The Supreme Court is releasing the justices’ personal data sheets (PDS) and their complete list of assets and liabilities online, in a summary report using a format which the justices, sitting en banc, have approved this week.

Lawyer Theodore Te, SC spokesperson, announced here on Wednesday that the summary report would lay out the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) of the justices, court officers and employees.

The report would also outline their PDS or curriculum vitae (CV), Te said.

Last year, the court had declined a request made by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the SALN of justices of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and the Court of Tax Appeals, saying it was a “fishing expedition” for their respective tax compliance histories.

However, the court granted the BIR limited access to the SALN of Sandiganbayan justices.

The high court’s refusal to release justices’ SALN to the BIR drew speculation that it is shielding itself from public scrutiny.

The justices’ financial status has become a matter of concern since the impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

But in a June 13, 2012 en banc resolution, the court acknowledged that it was duty bound to make its SALN public.

“While ‘ public concern’ like ‘public interest’ eludes exact definition and has been said to embrace a broad spectrum of subjects which the public may want to know, either because such matters directly affect their lives, or simply because such matters naturally arouse the interest of an ordinary citizen, the Constitution itself … has classified the information disclosed in the SALN as a matter of public concern and interest,” it said.

“In other words, a ‘ duty to disclose’ sprang from the ‘right to know’ … Hence, the duty on the part of members of the government to disclose their SALN to the public in the manner provided by law,” the court said.

But it also stressed in the 2012 resolution that “the right to information, with its companion right of access to official records, is not absolute,” and the SALN “is undoubtedly subject to regulation.”

The resolution said the court “finds no cogent reason to deny the public access to the SALN, personal data sheets and curriculum vitae of the justices of the court and other magistrates.”

The 2012 resolution imposed regulations before it would consider the requests.

The Supreme Court had ruled that all requests for personal information involving the judiciary must be limited only to the latest SALN, PDS and CV. It said the requests should define the purpose for which the justices’ SALN and personal information are being accessed, and these “interests should go beyond pure or mere curiosity.”

“The requesting party, whether as individuals or as members of the media, must have no derogatory record of having misused any requested information previously furnished to them,” it said.