Lifestyle check to sniff out drug-linked public servants

Public servants with suspected connects to the narcotics trade should to be put under a way of lifestyle to determine any unexplained wealth, Malacañang suggested Thursday.

“I think that should be SOP (standard operating procedure),” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said during a Palace news conference about lifestyle checks on drug-linked government officials and workers.

“When you’re involved or when your name has been linked to illegal drug industry and you are a public officer, dapat talagang may lifestyle check [There should be a lifestyle check,” he said.

Panelo issued the comments after President Duterte supposedly ordered a lifestyle check on sacked Bacolod City Police Chief Senior Superintendent Francisco Ebreo and four other police officers following their alleged involvement in illegal drugs.

Duterte prior arranged the removal of the concerned policemen from the posts pending an investigation on their supposed offense. They were berated by the President for the proliferation of illegal drugs in their jurisdiction during a recent meeting at the Palace.

Asked to confirm the President’s order on the lifestyle check on the drug-tainted Bacolod cops, Panelo had no information about the matter.

“I don’t know whether he ordered. But as I said, that should be SOP. When anybody is involved in any irregularity involving money, talagang dapat mag-lifestyle check,” he said.

The President earlier said Ebreo might not be involved in the drug trafficking but appeared to be a drug lord protector. He also found “strange” that Ebreo and his deputy visited a suspected drug lord at the hospital and even provided him with a security detail.