SALN or corruption

The SALN is a double-edged sword which is being poorly used now as if it was a blunt weapon. It is currently viewed as an anti-corruption tool for getting scalawags out of office without anybody really knowing how to use it. The prosecutors and most especially the Office of the Ombudsman must be taught how to use and expertly analyze the accounting forms and narratives as the strongest evidence against the accused filer.

I cannot imagine the 1987 Constitutionalists barely coming out of a plunderous regime creating a blunt instrument to prevent and fight corruption. In their wisdom, they resorted to the universal principles of accounting and auditing as the basis for enforcing, nay extracting honesty from government servants. The SALN is nothing but the legalese term for the Balance Sheet which is one of the three fundamental annual reports (together with the Income Statement and the Cash Flow Statement) relied on by the international business community for measuring financial health of persons, partnerships and corporations.