Other than money as the root of all evils, does it follow that is it also the common denominator in lifestyle change?

There is no argument that it is. For what else explain the fact that many lifestyles were compromised due to money. Look around you and see for yourself if not so many people who used to live in penury but are now living the life of the rich and the famous. Why? Obviously, their new found wealth changed their lifestyle overnight. Recent events showed that at least two prominent personalities are the subject of lifestyle changes as they go about their respective pursuits. Chief of them is Dennis Cunanan, director-general of the state-owned Technology Resource Center. According to an Inquirer report, the embattled government official will be subjected to a lifestyle check after he was suspected to have benefited from the pork barrel scam engineered by Janet Lim-Napoles. Although he denied during the Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry that he accepted kickbacks out of the pork barrel of three senators, he was repudiated by Benhur Luy who said he saw Cunanan bringing the paper bag full of money. Luy, who is the main whistle-blower in the on-going probe, prepared the bag where the money was placed representing Cunanan's kickback in the pork barrel transaction and therefore he knows whereof he speaks.

The lifestyle factor on Cunanan cropped up after he was accused of having lived in a mansion in White Plains, owned a fleet of cars and is making frequent trips abroad. With a salary scale due a middle level executive, what else explain the change in society status. Published accounts showed that before he is involved in the PDAF mess, he is not as high flying as he is now. Cunanan's lifestyle change gave rise to suspicions that indeed he was a party to a conspiracy to earn money out of the PDAF of senators as commissions for the use of his office as conduit of Napoles-instigated capers. Another popular individual who is keeping up with the Joneses from the quagmire of poverty is Fr. Fernando Suarez, the so-called healing priest who is nursing an ambitious dream of building a P1billion shrine in Cavite, the size of which is taller than the 30-meter high Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The plan was exposed to the full glare of publicity following the decision of San Miguel Corporation to back out from an agreement with the Philippine Foundation of blessed Mary, Mother of the Poor, Inc. This foundation is founded by Fr. Suarez and is tasked of handling funds out of donations from generous donors here and abroad who were sold out to the spiritual activities of the healing priest. Through the benevolence of Ramon S. Ang (RSA) of SMC, the conglomerate decided to donate to the foundation identified with Fr. Suarez a part of its sprawling property in Alfonso Cavite to pave the way for the construction of the mega shrine.

It turned out that the project was not meant to be realized. In the interregnum that the project was in the drawing board, SMC discovered that Suarez' foundation was in deep financial trouble prompting SMC to scuttle the deal. In his column last Thursday in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the hard hitting Ramon Tulfo chronicled the indiscretions of the healing priest. Entitled “The healing priest's rich lifestyle”, Tulfo said SMC could well have underwritten the construction of the proposed P1 billion shrine to Mother Mary, a project of Fr. Fernando Suarez in Cavite province. But the business conglomerate discovered massive unnecessary spending by the healing priest, according to an SMC insider, and thus withdrew its support from the project. “Before, Father Suarez would come to RSA's office wearing only a T-shirt and sandals, but now he wears expensive clothes and watches, stays in five-star hotels and attends tennis matches like the Wimbledon Classic and the French Open, the SMC insider said. With all the negative publicity, what is there to look forward for the good father but to languish in ignominy. In his heydays, Fr. Suarez who was believed to have been “gifted” with divine powers was drawing millions of desperate individuals flocking to his healing ministry. His drawing power attracted thousands of believers resulting in millions of donations. It's a different story altogether after he was subjected to the barrage of bad press. The worst part of the priest's predicament was that he was exposed not as a healer of the sick but one who is out to bilk the gullible and the desperate of their hard earned money in the name of his divine power to heal. In short, under the façade of healing, the priest's activity was nothing but a money-making enterprise. As we discern the lifestyle change of Cunanan and Fr. Suarez, it all boils down to man's desire for status; either greed to increase one's station in life, or jealousy over losing in the status game to others.