HOUSE Minority Leader Francis Escudero Monday called for a congressional investigation into a column item by Inquirer sports columnist Recah Trinidad that a Filipino, reputedly a public figure, rented a $20,000-suite at the MGM Grand hotel to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales fight two weeks ago. (Based on Monday’s currency conversion rate of P54.48 to the US dollar, this is equivalent to P1,089,600.)
“This might not be illegal but it is certainly immoral,? Escudero said.
He claimed the investigation would not focus on determining the identity of the public figure but only on strengthening the country’s laws against ostentatious display of wealth by public officials.
“This is the source of public upheavals, when you flaunt your wealth in the face of so much suffering by our people,? Escudero said.
“This was bad taste even if the (public figure’s) wealth was inherited,? he added.
Escudero said the investigation would not be a witch hunt but he said those ho went to Las Vegas, including more than a dozen congressmen and First Gentlemen Jose Miguel Arroyo, might be invited to shed light on the matter.
He said Congress should look into whether or not the country’s laws against public officials flaunting their wealth should be strengthened.
He noted that the Code of Ethical Standards for Public Officials calls on government employees to live modest lives while the Civil Code bars ostentatious display of wealth which might cause public unrest.
In his column Bare Eye on March 23, Trinidad said that a Filipino who came to watch the Pacquiao-Morales match rented the $20,000-a-night MGM Grand Villa 1, which has a total floor area of 12,000 square feet.
The suite had its own swimming pool, a front garden, and other amenities.
Trinidad said that the Filipino was not a congressman but was a “heavyweight backer? of Pacquiao. He declined to name the person at the request of his source adding that baring it “would be a political bombshell.?
