Yt Framework

The author of the proposed whistleblowers' protection act in Congress (House Bill 0132) said the nation owes a debt of gratitude to the "small lady" who provided the impeachment prosecution team the documents on Chief Justice Corona's bank accounts.

“If not for her then we would really have a hard time uncovering the numerous peso and dollar accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona which shows that his real assets are way beyond what he declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN). I hope that there will be more whistleblowers like her that will come out to expose corruption and evil doing in all branches of government,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño.

"That anonymous small lady, whoever or whatever she is, clearly believed that exposing information about wrongdoing by a high official of the land was more important than a Marcos-era law protecting foreign currency depositors. I salute her. It is for people like her that we're pushing hard for a whisltleblowers' protection law," the lawmaker said. “What is bothering me though is the constant harping of the defense over the identity of the source of the bank accounts. This is clearly a trap to divert attention from Corona’s accounts,” he added “The fact is, the information on Corona’s undeclared bank accounts was genuine and the PSB President was forced to admit 10 accounts in his name in PS Bank alone.  The subpoena issued by the Senate was legal, whether or not its source is identified. This penchant to penalize the whistleblower instead of the corrupt public official being exposed, which was a common tactic by Pres. Arroyo before, is now again being employed. This discourages potential whistleblowers and encourages corruption,” Casiño said. The proposed whistleblower’s act aims to set up a mechanism to secure the person of a whistleblower and counter the stigma of ostracism so that any potential whistleblower or informant on graft and corrupt activities will not hesitate to come out in the open. It will do this by: (1) establishing a monetary reward system for the benefit of whistleblowers; (2) protecting informants against reprisals and against civil or criminal liability when they make public interest disclosures; (3) securing the safety of whistleblowers and their families; (4) ensuring that public disclosures are made to the proper public authorities; (5) ensuring that inappropriate publication of unsubstantiated disclosures does not happen, and (6) ensuring that proper records on disclosures are kept and safeguarded. “We are all searching for the truth and accountability in government, so we must help whistleblowers in every way we can,” ended Casiño.