Guevarra: Lifestyle checks alone won't indicate wrongdoing

A lifestyle check alone will not show whether a person is engaged in wrongdoing, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday.

Lifestyle checks should be accompanied by a deeper investigation of specific corrupt or other criminal acts, Guevarra said following Ombudsman Samuel Martires' statement that he has stopped lifestyle checks on public officials.

"I fully understand where the honorable Ombudsman is coming from," Guevarra said in a message to reporters.

"Indeed a lifestyle check as a standalone measure will not conclusively indicate whether a person is engaged in some wrongdoing to enrich himself," he added.

Martires, a retired Supreme Court justice, said on Tuesday that the law covering lifestyle checks on public officials is "illogical." He said he wants to propose amendments to Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.

“Bakit ko pinatigil? What is living beyond your means? Iyong kumikita ng P50,000 a month, lives in a small house, nakaipon, bumili ng BMW na promo, zero interest, kayang-kaya niya hulugan, is he living beyond his means? I don’t think so. What he has are distorted values and distorted priorities,” Martires told lawmakers.

RA 6713 provides that public officials and employees and their families should lead "modest lives appropriate to their positions and income"  and not "indulge in extravagant or ostentatious display of wealth in any form."

Asked to weigh in on the matter, Guevarra said a lifestyle check "has to be intertwined with a much deeper process of investigating specific acts of corruption or other crimes."

He said this is meant to "strengthen a finding of wrongdoing, as manifested in the lifestyle of the person concerned."

"But in any event, government officials and employees, no matter how well-to-do or wealthy they are, are encouraged to live and project a modest life as public servants," Guevarra said.

Guevarra led a task force that investigated allegations of corruption at the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and recommended criminal and administrative charges against several of the state insurer's officials.

He confirmed on Wednesday that the task force had started lifestyle checks on PhilHealth officials "as an adjunct of the fraud and corruption investigations."

"This is a continuing joint undertaking," he said.

Martires' announcement that he has stopped lifestyle checks came weeks after he issued a memorandum circular restricting public access to government officials' Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). —KBK, GMA News