The Office of the Ombudsman Thursday said it will create an investigating panel to look into the complaints filed before the anti-graft body on the alleged lavish dinner by President Arroyo and her entourage in New York last week.

Assistant Ombudsman Mark Jalandoni said that he will assign a director who will led the investigation following the formal complaints filed by Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello.

Jalandoni said that governing laws regarding public officials set no standard on what may be constituted as lavish lifestyle.

“There is no mention in the law of the amount or value, so it’s contextual in terms of society. There is no standard, but we will look into whether a public official’s salary can afford such lifestyle,” Jalandoni said in an interview by a television station.

Jalandoni’s statement was made after Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has given instruction to the Field Investigation Office to conduct the necessary investigation on the issue.

Speaking on condition he will not be identified, an official said it is mandated upon the Ombudsman to initiate an investigation upon receiving a complaint filed against any government officials or employees.

“The office is mandated to investigate and prosecute anomalies; direct, expedite or prevent impropriety in the performance of duties by public officials and employees; and determine the causes of inefficiency, red tape, mismanagement, fraud, and corruption in government, and make recommendations for their elimination,” the official said, quoting the message made by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez during the agency’s 21st anniversary last May.

In his complaint, Bello alleged that Mrs. Arroyo, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and others were liable for violation of Republic Act 6713 or Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees which provides that “public officials shall lead modest lives appropriate to their positions and income and that they shall not engage in extravagant or ostentatious display of wealth.”

The complaint stemmed from the presidential entourage’s dinner at Le Cirque allegedly amounting to $20,000 (roughly P1 million) as reported by the New York Post last August 7.

As this developed, the House of Representatives said it will look into the reported $20,000 dinner at a posh New York City restaurant last August 2.

The investigation was based on the resolution filed by Party-List Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna and Liza Maza of Gabriela, who criticized the President and other government officials present during the dinner at Le Cirque restaurant for showing “insensitivity to the millions of Filipinos suffering from widespread poverty and involuntary hunger.”

“It is but proper and necessary to question such ostentatious circumstances involving any government official, including the President, on the basis of ethics, accountability and good governance,” the three militant party-list lawmakers said.

Ocampo, Casiño and Maza asked in their resolution that inquiry be conducted by the Committee on Good Government.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde earlier admitted that the President and her entourage had dinner at Le Cirque but said that it was Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez who paid for the supposed $20,000 tab. Later statements pointed to his brother, Daniel Romualdez, a US-based architect, as the one who allegedly footed the bill.

Malacañang denied that the dinner amounted to almost $20,000, saying that the reports were “grossly exaggerated.”

Remonde admitted he did not know how much it had cost, stating that they merely ordered “set meals” and that it was a “simple dinner.”

A lawmaker also said the dinner was in celebration of the President and her husband’s wedding anniversary and that it was not surprising to spend that much based on New York standards.

Filipino diplomats were cited as criticizing the “insensitive act” in the face of the country’s austerity measures, widespread poverty and involuntary hunger.

The latest Social Weather Stations’ survey showed that 20.3 percent of Filipino families experience involuntary hunger, while the National Statistical Coordination Board reported that the Philippines is unlikely to attain the 17 percent target for poverty incidence in 2010 because the level is at 30 percent.