Manila: The presidential palace challenged President Rodrigo Duterte’s critics to file cases in court after an investigative report exposed supposed business interests held by the family of the Philippine leader.
“If Attorney Lourdes Sereno and the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) believe that the increases relating to the president’s assets are ill-gotten wealth, they should file the appropriate charges instead of nit-picking and using media to create intrigue and put the President and his family in a bad light,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said on Tuesday.
Panelo was referring to an April 5 report by the PCIJ detailing the extent of business interests held by the president’s family, particularly that of his daughter Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte and her husband Mans Carpio as well as presidential son and former Davao City Vice Mayor Paulo Duterte.
Sereno, the former Supreme Court Chief Justice, had challenged the President to explain to the public his family’s wealth and business interests as detailed by the PCIJ report.
Panelo said that Sereno, being the country’s former chief magistrate should know that the onus on proving the accusation falls on the accuser. “After all, ‘ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat’ - the burden of proof lies upon him who affirms, not on him who denies,” he said.
Business interests
Based on the first of a series of reports published by the PCIJ, Duterte, Sara and Paolo “have interests and engagements in a total of at least 23 corporate entities”.
“A majority of these are involved in the food and catering business, a few in freight and trucking services, and others in education, medical service, and foundation work,” the report, authored by PCIJ’s Malou Mangahas and Floreen Simon said.
Mangahas, in a television report on Tuesday, said while it is not illegal for top public officials to hold interests in businesses, it behoves that they, as persons holding positions of public trust, declare these holdings in their Statement of Assets Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
The SALN is a gauge largely used by government oversight bodies to determine if an official has a record of questionable gains while in office
Panelo said he finds Sereno’s rant on the Duterte’s wealth in relation to their SALN as “ludicrous and ironic.”
“Article 11, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution requires public officials to file their SALN. President Rodrigo Duterte already did that, unlike Atty. Sereno who failed to faithfully file her SALNs while (holding an important posts) at the University of the Philippines when she applied for the top magistrate post at the High Court,” Sereno said.
Sereno, who was appointed by then President Benigno Aquino III as Supreme Court Chief Justice in 2012, as ousted from her post in 2017 through a quo warranto petition.
The reason for the ouster of Sereno, was that she did not file her SALN in 2008.