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Monday, August 07, 2006
Nilles: Lifestyle check
By Giovanni A. Nilles
Open Sentence
Last week, Negros Occidental Governor Joseph Marañon was quoted saing he has endorsed the plan of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct lifestyle checks on the public officials in the province.
There is no doubt on the need to conduct these kind of probes on both elected and appointed officials in the government, especially among those who are occupying top and sensitive posts.
However, the basic question remains. Is the NBI allowed on its own and without the need of a complaint or a request to conduct such an investigation? Putting it another way, will the NBI probe these powerful officials without a request, say from the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas, or a complaint from a citizen?
Without any of these two conditions existing, any lawyer can easily question the motive of NBI-Bacolod Chief Philip Pecache and destroy that inquiry without a sweat.
An inquiry into the lifestyle of our public officials can help rid our government of the bad eggs. But without the legal ground to stand on it maybe nothing but a mere act of dreaming and a grandstanding.
There is a government agency that can do a lifestyle check without the need of a complaint. And Mr. Pecache probably knows that it is not the NBI.
It is the Office of the Ombudsman that is tasked by law to look into the life, including the moral side, of all public officials.
This is precisely why a head of office, say a male head of office, can be terminated from a lofty government post simply for entering a cockpit or for loving a woman other than his wife.
It is this very office that has scolded Bacolod City officials a few years back for engaging in "too much politics" and disregarding the delivery of the much-needed basic services in the process.
Does the NBI-Bacolod Office ever consult its lawyers? Does it have enough manpower and resources to conduct a lifestyle probe?
What has happened to the probe it made on spread of sexually-oriented phone messages? For sure, there are other valuable pursuits that Mr. Pecache can spend his time into. Will the NBI capture the teenager who raped and killed a 13-year-old girl in San Carlos City? Will it be able to arrest the suspect in the rape-slay of a teacher, whose body was dumped in Bago City?
These two cases are a big challenge but a lot smaller than a lifestyle check.
Can Mr. Pecache pass these smaller tests?
(August 7, 2006 issue)
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