Senator Francis Tolentino on Tuesday said he wants to require government officials to fully disclose their relatives who are connected or part of terrorist groups or criminal syndicates.
Tolentino raised the proposal as his response following the recent arrest of the elder sister of Prospero de Vera III, chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for multiple murders and who was identified as part of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA).
In his privilege speech at the Senate session, Tolentino proposed that all government officials including ordinary clerks, minor bureaucrats, and even barangay officials should disclose their relatives and family relations when filing Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net worth (SALN).
He also proposed to require officials upon entry into the government office to declare their family relatives.
“It is now the right time that we also require that when one enters the government through appointment or an elective position to perhaps declare: ‘Do you have a relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity who is a member of a terrorist organization, who is an affiliate of an organization that seeks to overthrow the Republic of the Philippines?’” Tolentino proposed.
The Senator said that when applying for a VISA in other countries like the United States and Australia, it probes if a person is a member of a paramilitary group that seeks to throw the government overseas or if it is affiliated with terror groups.
“Bakit po sa atin walang ganiyan? Sa atin po, ang nire-require lang natin ay SALN. Bakit po hinayagaan natin?” he asked.
Tolentino noted that he does not intend to ascribed De Vera.
But asserted that he brought up the discussion as there might be government officials who are "connected to incumbent officers that have access to confidential information and may endanger national security."
“I might be right Mr. President because there are several sensitive positions in the government which perhaps our intelligence community can no longer monitor this,” he said.
He again noted that he does not intend to impute bad faith against government servants but he only proposes certain amendments to the current laws in the country.
