Probe vs ‘narco cops, execs’ on
The Office of the Ombudsman is now checking the lifestyle of government officials including police officers who are allegedly involved in illegal drug activities.
Maria Corazon Vergara-Naraja, spokeswoman of the antigraft office in the Visayas, confirmed that their central office has created a task force to carry out the evaluations which includes looking into the assets of the public officials in relation to their income.
"There is a task force in the central office doing lifestyle check against public officials including police officers linked to the illegal drugs trade… These are fact-finding investigations focused on the issue of whether the public official's assets are proportionate to his legitimate income," Naraja said in a text message sent to The FREEMAN.
The investigation includes local officials who are alleged to be enablers of the illegal drug trade.
"If they are being linked to the drug trade then they are likely among those probed by the task force," Naraja added.
She said the lifestyle check can proceed without any formal complaint or request since it is part of the exercise of the Ombudsman's power to conduct a fact-finding investigation against public officials.
The investigation will involve a review of the declared wealth of the public officials in their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.
Under Republic Act No. 6770 (Ombudsman Act of 1989), the Ombudsman on its own may, or even without a lodged complaint, initiate an investigation into "any act or omission of any public officer or employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient."
The investigation came amid allegations hurled against some members of the Philippine National Police and other government officials.
Recently, self-confessed drug personality Franz Sabalones revealed a drug matrix, alleging that 18 policemen and one Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency team leader were getting up to P507,000 weekly to look the other way.
The list was released more than a month after Sabalones surrendered voluntarily to PNP Director General Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa.
It included the names of Superintendent Rex Derilo, the former chief of the Regional Intelligence Division of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas and Superintendent George Ylanan, the former chief of PRO-7's Regional Special Operations Group.
The two police officials led the team which killed alleged drug lord Jeffrey "Jaguar" Diaz along with one of his associates last June in Barangay Almanza, Las Piñas City.
Derilo was earlier transferred to PRO-9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) while Ylanan was transferred to PRO-10 (Northern Mindanao) after their names came out in a narco list. However, PRO-7 insisted they were relieved as part of normal internal reshuffling.
The two officials earlier said they will file a P10-million lawsuit against Sabalones for his "baseless" accusations. Their lawyer, Inocencio dela Cerna, said they will be filing libel, falsification, and perjury complaints against Sabalones for releasing the list imputing crime against the two without basis.
Before Sabalones' revelation of his list, President Rodrigo Duterte had tagged retired police generals Marcelo Garbo and Vicente Loot (now Daanbantayan mayor) as alleged drug protectors.
Garbo has not given any statement yet regarding the allegation and could no longer be reached for comment. Loot cried foul over the allegations saying it has destroyed him and affected his family.
Loot became a deputy for operations of the Police Regional Office-7, heads of the chief of the Central Visayas Regional Anti-Narcotics Office and Cebu Provincial Police Office before he retired last year and ran for mayor last May 9.
A year before he left the PNP service in July 2015, Loot posted a net worth of P70.2 million, which declined from the more than P100 million in 2009.
He declared total assets at P80 million, of which P56 million is his real properties and P23.7 million is his personal properties.
He disclosed owning 10 vehicles, 12 townhouses, and four agricultural lots. His liabilities, on the other hand, reached P 9.8 million in car, real estate loan, and personal loans.
Loot attributed the decrease of his wealth to the exclusion of real properties owned by his wife before their marriage. Under business interests and financial connections, the newlyelected mayor listed his wife's businesses- a lending and financing firm, and a cockpit.
In 2011, Luisa, during her term as Daanbantayan mayor, emerged as the richest local chief executive in the province with a net worth of P108 million.
The couple was once sued for graft before the Office of the Ombudsman over their alleged unexplained wealth which significantly increased in a span of a year, from P87.7 million net worth they declared in 2006 to P106.7 million in 2007. However, the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.