I am reiterating what I said last 21 August 2018 that House Resolution No. 1410 (now HR 2467) imposes for the first time stringent and repressive requirements for the public to access lawmakers SALNs.

What is so sacrosanct about the contents of a Representative’s SALN that the access to it by the public and media is made inordinately restrictive and tedious as contained in the proposed House Resolution No. 1410 on the Rules referring to, among others, access to SALNs of Members of the House?

Topping the stringent procedure is the condition that any request for access and disclosure must have the imprimatur of the majority in plenary session.

I urge the new leadership of the House and my colleagues to collectively review and liberalize the proposed Rules to assure transparency and ready access to the said SALNs.

If we have nothing to hide, why make public access to and disclosure of SALNs, which are public documents, extremely difficult to the extent of discouraging and deterring applicants from securing copies of said SALNs?

EDCEL C. LAGMAN