<\/p>\n
SENATE President Francis \u201cChiz\u201d G. Escudero has renewed his call for transparency and accountability in government by refiling a measure that mandates all public officials and employees to waive their rights under Republic Act No. 1405, or the Law on the Secrecy of Bank Deposits, and Republic Act No. 6426, or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Under the Escudero bill, government personnel\u2014except those serving in an honorary capacity\u2014will be required to submit a written waiver authorizing the Office of the Ombudsman to examine all their deposits and investments, including foreign currency accounts, in a fresh bid to reinforce anti-corruption efforts and bolster public trust in government institutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis bill has languished for too long,\u201d the Senate chief said, referring to its previous iterations.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that this time, we can turn the rhetoric of transparency into actionable policy,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Escudero has been filing the bill on lifting the confidentiality of bank deposits since 2013, grounded in the belief that public office is a public trust and that all government officials and employees are accountable to the public.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The measure, if approved, will ensure that no civil servant\u2014regardless of rank\u2014can use his or her position to plunder public coffers.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The veteran legislator emphasized that the secrecy of bank deposits, while historically enacted to encourage savings and economic development, now acts as a shield for illicit activity.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe laws may have served their purpose in the past, but their rigidity has enabled corruption to thrive under the guise of confidentiality,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe are the last country standing in preserving absolute secrecy. That distinction doesn\u2019t protect democracy but rather, it undermines it,\u201d the Senate leader said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He cited the bill\u2019s explanatory note, which warns that institutions can be exploited to hide illegal wealth, launder money, evade taxes, and commit other financial crimes under a statutorily mandated veil.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cVerily, any person who has nothing to hide in secret would only welcome this proposal in the name of transparency and accountability,\u201d the Senate chief wrote in the explanatory note, adding that government itself should lead the charge for reform and signal a systemic shift toward openness.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition to the proposed waiver of bank secrecy, the veteran legislator has filed on Monday the following bills he wanted prioritized by the 20th Congress:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act prohibiting interference by national government agencies in the use of the National Tax Allotment and locally-generated revenues of Local Government Units<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 A measure to further strengthen local autonomy by amending the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act providing temporary tax relief to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to boost business competitiveness<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act reducing compliance costs for MSMEs by amending the National Internal Revenue Code<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act increasing and automatically adjusting the Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) for government employees<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act reinstating mandatory credit allocation for MSMEs and penalizing noncompliance<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act updating the Condominium Act (RA 4726) to promote responsible redevelopment<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An Act creating a Tripartite Council to address unemployment, job-skills mismatch, and tech-induced displacement, and<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 An act lowering the compulsory retirement age of DepEd personnel from 65 to 60 years old.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SENATE President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero has renewed his call for transparency and accountability in government by refiling a measure that mandates all public officials<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14925,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14923\/revisions\/14925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}