Aside from Cabinet officials, whose standard of living the President has ordered probed, other appointive officials holding permanent positions in the government and even those holding elective positions should be investigated, according to Nograles.
Widening the dragnet, he said, will ensure that all government officials use their position only to serve public interest and not fatten their bank accounts.
Nograles noted it should not be difficult to identify the scalawags and those who have amassed suspicious wealth because all that is needed is to trace their financial history before joining the government.
He urged Mrs. Arroyo to probe officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
"You will be surprised that in Mindanao, even in areas that are covered by ARMM, almost all government officials own luxury vehicles although they don’t have any other means of livelihood other than what they get from the government. Nagkalat doon ang Expedition at Pajero at may mga kanya-kanyang tsuper at bodyguard pa mga yan (The place is teeming with Expeditions and Pajeros and they even have drivers and bodyguards)," Nograles disclosed.
He added that this phenomenon of too many government officials wallowing in an excessive lifestyle in Mindanao should have not escaped the attention of Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) chairman Dario Rama because he hails from the region.
"All he has to do is to go to Cotabato and look around," he said.
Nograles, however, warned that the President should make sure that the lifestyle check on government officials should go beyond rhetoric and press releases to strengthen public confidence in her government’s war against corruption.
He admitted that the campaign is a radical move but if successfully implemented it can elevate the standard of government service in the country and could save billions of government funds otherwise lost to corruption. These funds could be used to build bridges, highways, farm-to-market roads, agricultural facilities and other strategic and anti-poverty infrastructures, he said.