File SSAL truthfully, accurately, says SC decision

By EDMER F. PANESA (Manila, Philippines)

September 6, 2010, 5:43pm

The Supreme Court (SC) has reminded government officials not to treat their Sworn Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SSAL) as a mere scrap of paper and thus, it should be “accomplished as truthfully, as detailed and as accurately as possible.”

In a 14-page decision penned by Associate Justice Martin S. Villarama Jr., the High Court said the annual filing of SSAL “must not be treated as a simple and trivial routine, but as an obligation that is part and parcel of every civil servant’s duty to the people.”

The SC issued the reminder as it upheld the 2004 decision of the Office of the President dismissing from the service a regional director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for failing the lifestyle check of the previous  administration.

Lawyer Antonio F. Montemayor, former director for Revenue Region IV in San Fernando, Pampanga, was dismissed from service for his failure to declare that he owned two luxury vehicles — a 2001 Ford Expedition and a 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser — in his SSAL for the years 2001 and 2002.

The law, particularly Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, requires government officials and employees to file a detailed SSAL on taking and leaving office — as well as not later than the first 15 days of April at the close of every calendar year. It included a statement of the amounts and sources of  their income, the amount of their personal and family expenses, and even the amount of income taxes paid.

The High Tribunal underscored the importance of SSAL in promoting  transparency in the bureaucracy and in ensuring that “all government employees and officials lead just and modest lives.”

It added that SSAL also serves as basis of government and the public in monitoring the income and lifestyle of state workers “in compliance with the constitutional policy to eradicate corruption.”

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Published in Manila Bulletin September 6, 2010.