Palace Speaks on Stand of Marcos Jr. over the Ombudsman’s Investigation on Some Congressmen
MARCOS JR.
– The Malacañang Palace said the President will respect the rules of the House of Representatives amid the claim of the Ombudsman that they are allegedly having a hard time getting the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) of congressmen they are investigating.
One of the first things that Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla after he assumed the position as the chief graft buster of the nation was reopen the public access to the SALNs that are within its repository. It has the SALNs of the president, the vice president, and the local government officials among others.
all senators of the 20th Congress released copies of their SALN to the public
. In the case of the House of Representatives, a few congressmen did what the senators did.
Recently, amid the ongoing flood control probe,
Ombudsman Boying Remulla claimed that their team is allegedly having a hard time getting the SALN of some congressmen
that they are investigating. According to Remulla, they were told that the matter needs to pass the plenary first.
Photo Courtesy of Interaksyon
The Ombudsman claimed that he will write to House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy over the matter. According to him, he will not accept the alleged excuse.
“They said the permission still has to go through the plenary. That’s not how it works. I used to be in Congress. I know the plenary inside and out. We don’t do that,”
Remulla said.
Marcos Jr. also wants to avoid “executive overreach” as the palace. Based on the
report
, Atty. Claire Castro stressed the separation of powers.
“It’s clear that the President wants transparency and accountability. But each department has its own rules. There is a separation of powers, and whatever rules the House of Representatives or Congress sets regarding this matter, the President will respect them,”
the Malacañang press official said.
Recently,
Malacañang also spoke on the fate of the ICI
or the Independent Commission for Infrastructure that was created to probe the flood control scam.