Solon wants to expand lifestyle check

Not because they don’t move around in brand new vehicles means they’re off the hook.

It also doesn’t mean that they’ve already passed the test.

Rep. Monico Puentevella, in fact, believes that the issue regarding the luxurious vehicles owned by key Philippine Sports Commission officials facing a lifestyle check is just the tip of the iceberg.

"There’s a lot more (issues) and it will come out sooner or later," said the Bacolod congressman.

Puentevella said charges of anomalies against these officials, led by chairman Eric Buhain, are starting to spill over from inside the government sports agency.

"There’s more to come because the PSC employees will soon start coming out. Just wait and see," added the lawmaker, referring to a group employees and officials disgruntled with the way things are roundly shaping up in the PSC.

Puentevella believes that these employees and officials will be responsible and brave enough to provide him with all the details that would keep the lifestyle check rolling.

He said the issue regarding the cars, brand new or not, will eventually be ran over by bigger ones because the lifestyle check will go beyond the PSC parking lot, which, on a regular working day, looks like a typical car exchange branch along Banawe or Timog Avenue in Quezon City.

He said the lifestyle check will also look into the other properties of the officials in question.

And these include houses, real estate, shares in either the stock exchange or golf clubs, their monthly salaries, hobbies, the people they move around with, how much they spend on what they drink and what they eat and the places they go to – especially at night. And their bank deposits, perhaps?

In short, the lifestyle check will easily determine if they’re living way beyond their means.

Aside from Buhain, who moves around in a huge Chevrolet, and admitted to owning six other vehicles, other PSC officials facing lifestyle checks, and now known as the "Magnificent Seven," are executive director Ed Mateo, sports complex administrator Ramon Suzara, grassroots development head Ariel Paredes, administrative officer Dennis Rivera, media bureau chief Arsenic Lacson, and executive assistants Ike Buan and Sean Solis.

Buan, also a swimming instructor, and Solis, said to be a relative of the PSC chief, came along when Buhain was named chairman early last year while the rest have been with the PSC longer than most of the national athletes.

They’ve all denied owning brand new vehicles.