By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Twenty senators have bared their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs). Four have not.
Alan Peter Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, and Rodante Marcoleta — what’s the holdup? The law is clear: the SALN is not optional, not negotiable, and certainly not a favor to the public. It’s a duty. So why the delay? Are these four waiting to see how the cards fall before showing theirs?
This isn’t poker, where one needs to bluff. Unless, of course, many of our senators are turning transparency and public disclosure into a parlor game of Two Truths and a Lie.
When public trust is the currency, silence looks a lot like deceit. If there’s nothing to hide, then what’s taking them so long to comply with what’s rightfully public under the law? The longer they stall, the louder the suspicion grows.
And speaking of suspicion, former Senate President Chiz Escudero may have declared the lowest net worth among senators at a little over ₱18 million — but that modest number raises more eyebrows than it clears. Is this humility, or a cover story?
His declaration doesn’t exactly erase the whispers linking him to alleged “bagmen” like Maynard Ngu. If anything, it only shows how capable Escudero is of concealing what he wishes to keep buried. Because if ₱18 million is all he claims to own after decades in politics, then one must ask: Is his SALN as fake as his eyebrows?
Transparency isn’t about who can look poorer on paper. It’s about who’s honest enough to show the public the truth — without edits, without games, and without fear. And until every senator does, no one in that Chamber deserves to preach about integrity.
Speaking of preaching, I’m reminded of how often I see video clips of Senator Joel Villanueva swearing before God that he has never stolen a peso of public money.
I’d like to believe him, but it’s starting to look like Strike Two for the self-anointed “Brother.” First, the ₱10-million ghost farm project from his pork barrel under then-Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales. Then, a whistleblower linked him to the latest DPWH kickback and ghost project schemes.
Perhaps, he feels untouchable following a reversal of the ruling of Carpio that he should be dismissed from the Senate as a penalty for the administrative component of the PDAF corruption case against him.
Hindi Marites si Martires?
The author of that reversal, Ombudsman Samuel Martires, kept that ruling secret. And when interviewed recently in the Bilyonaryo channel by Pinky Webb, Martires himself admits on record that he “can’t remember” why he never published the reversal of Villanueva’s dismissal order.
Martires even had the gall to say it wasn’t his temperament to publicize cases and tell the media. Parang sinasabi niya na hindi Marites si Martires. He says it was not a necessity and thought that if he had done so, people might not believe in Villanueva’s valid defense.
My question is: Since when was it the Ombudsman’s job to protect a senator’s defense in a corruption case against the public’s right to know? At some point, the former Ombudsman must be held to account — because shielding the corrupt is itself corruption. The law owes him the same scrutiny he once denied others to protect someone already found guilty by his predecessor.
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