Come May, voters should make their stand against the enemies of transparency in both chambers of Congress, particularly those in the House of Representatives who are making it hard to access the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of elected lawmakers.

House Resolution 2467 is revolting, to say the least, as it claimed the congressmen’s move to put roadblocks on the access to the financial documents was “consistent with the right of the people to information of matters of public concerns, access to SALN of House Members, officials and employees shall be afforded the citizens subject to the limitations and prohibitions of the Constitution, existing laws and jurisprudence.”

The resolution is definite proof that the Freedom of Information (FoI) will never hurdle the House due to the resistance of legislators whose biggest fear is public accountability.

President Rody Duterte showed the way by issuing Executive Order (EO) 2 that mandated FoI which, however, encompasses only Rody’s branch of government.

He made known his position on transparency to Congress early on by encouraging the passage of the FoI.

Thus, it is disappointing that instead of heeding Rody, House members are stonewalling against the transparency trend.

Hypocritical was the resolution’s claim that “The House has the inherent power to regulate access by the public to personal documents such as SALN in order to avoid damage to or loss of the records and to prevent undue interference with the duties of the custodian.”

The measure goes on with the assumption that “The information in the SALN of its members may be used to render them and members of their family vulnerable to threats of life and security, influence the action of the House or its committees and, consequently, undermine the independence of the legislative branch.”

The undermining, as was the stated fear in the resolution, will only happen if a legislator abuses and runs off with the people’s money.

House members who pretend to be on the side of Rody expose their true selves since the move is totally opposed to the determination of the Duterte administration to expose irregularities.

Rody in his speeches would advise the public to approach him directly regarding officials who abuse their positions, promising that he would slap them in public.

The SALN is also the document that spurred the removal of “big fishes,” including, recently, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was lined up for impeachment before she was ousted through a quo warranto petition of the Solicitor General. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the petition resulting in Sereno’s removal.

The chief complaint against the ousted magistrate was her failure to provide complete SALN during the period she worked with government.

Her predecessor Renato Corona was also impeached and later on ousted, albeit on questionable circumstances, based on Article 2 of the complaint, which was his failure to fully disclose his assets in his SALN.

The resolution goes against the bounds of logic and decency in the House, causing the removal of a high official with the use of the public document which it is now trying to restrict.

Rody was forthright about transparency, which was a disposition he made plain in the FoI EO, which was signed almost the moment he stepped into Malacañang.

He also enunciated his transparency policy in his inaugural speech when he stated that “I abhor secrecy and instead advocate transparency in all government contracts, projects and business transactions from submission of proposals to negotiation to perfection and, finally, to consummation.”

The FoI bill always makes it through the Senate, but gathers cobwebs at the House year after year. Always.

The hypocritical administration of President Noynoy Aquino which assumed power on a pledge of good governance was a perennial obstacle to the passing of the FoI bill which is a demeanor that the current crop of opaque congressmen has inherited.

It would be up to the people, through the ballot, to remove from government the recalcitrants and backsliders on the transparency thrust.