PHILIPPINES
Manila Times-Mar 22
The House of Representatives has passed a bill to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency tasked to recover the estimated $10 billion ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his family.
The chamber, through viva voce voting, approved on second reading House Bill 7376 that seeks to abolish the PCGG and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) and transfers their authorities and responsibilities to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), to streamline legal services in the government.
The authors of the measure include Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte and the House justice committee chief, Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro.
“It is the policy of the State to ensure efficiency and economy in the operations of government, eliminate the overlapping of functions, consolidate the legal services in the government into one office, effectively address the expanding needs of the GOCCs (Government Owned and Controlled Corporations) towards the improvement of fiscal management and good corporate governance, and concentrate and enhance government efforts for the full and effective recovery of ill-gotten wealth and properties, including the efficient investigation and prosecution of cases relative thereto. Towards this end, the OGCC and the PCGG are hereby abolished and their respective powers and functions are transferred to the OSG,” the bill stated.
The bill authorizes the solicitor general to grant immunity from criminal prosecution to any person who provides information or testifies in any investigation previously conducted by the PCGG or future ill-gotten wealth cases investigated by the OSG.
Party-list representatives Antonio Tinio of Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna raised alarm over the measure, saying that giving more powers to the solicitor general was tantamount to clearing the Marcoses, as Solicitor General Jose Calida was a known supporter of the Marcoses.
The lawmakers pointed out that Calida was one of the leaders of the group Alyansang Duterte-Bongbong that supported the vice-presidential bid of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., son of the late president. Marcos Jr. lost to then Camarines Sur representative Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo by 263,473 votes.
How can the recovery efforts prosper when the OSG is led by a professed supporter of one of the principal holders of ill-gotten wealth? The Duterte administration’s moves to rehabilitate the Marcoses took another giant leap forward with the approval of House Bill 7376. We urge the public to denounce and oppose this bill,” Tinio said in a statement.
Calida, in his capacity as solicitor general, also defended the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to allow a hero’s burial for the late President Marcos before the Supreme Court.
The high court ruled in favor of the hero’s burial, 9-5. The late strongman was buried in tightly guarded ceremonies at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in November 2016. “Not content with giving a hero’s burial to the dictator Marcos and propping up the political fortunes of the Marcos family, President Duterte and his regime are moving to fatally undermine the government’s efforts to run after the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses,” Tinio said.
During the period of interpellation, Tinio said the PCGG was far from being useless, considering that it had recovered $4 billion out of the estimated $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses since the agency was established in 1986.
Tinio cited PCGG records that showed a “respectable” cost-to-recovery ratio in the last six years.
In 2012, PCGG recovered P57.10 billion in ill-gotten wealth on a P93-million budget. In 2013, PCGG got back P631.34 million on a P102-million budget.
By 2014, the PCGG was able to recover P1.57 billion of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth on a P106-million budget. In 2015, the recovered ill-gotten wealth increased to P14 billion even if PCGG’s budget declined to P101 million.
In 2016, the beginning of the Duterte administration, the PCCG recovered P481 million in ill-gotten wealth on a P104-million budget. “The cost to recovery ratio of the PCGG over recent years is P1 to P613, P1 to P6, P1 to P14, P1 to P138 and P1 to P4. We are not saying that the PCGG is doing the best job, but it is clear that the taxpayers’ money were not wasted on PCGG’s efforts because it is an agency dedicated to going after the ill-gotten wealth of the dictator,” Tinio said. “Given these figures, it is not true that the PCGG is useless,” Zarate added.
Zarate stressed that transferring the PCGG’s powers to the OSG would not speed up the recovery of the Marcos wealth, considering that the OSG was handling 730,000 cases, 374,424 of which were active cases.
“Why do we have to abolish PCGG in the first place? If we want to help the OSG, then we should hire more players to work there. Let’s grant them the compensation and benefits they deserve. What has the PCGG got to do with OSG’s burden?” Zarate, a lawyer, argued.
“The supposed strengthening of the OSG by abolishing the PCGG is like giving more to your right hand but cutting your left hand in the process,” Zarate added.
In August last year, President Rodrigo Duterte claimed the family of the late President Marcos was willing to return ill-gotten wealth. This was denied by the Marcoses. The Marcos heirs are still in government even after President Marcos was ousted from Malacañang on February 25, 1986 or after three days of the bloodless “People Power” revolution.
Former first lady Imelda Marcos is an Ilocos Norte representative, while his daughter Imee is the Ilocos Norte governor. Marcos Jr., a former lawmaker and Ilocos Norte governor, is protesting Robredo’s 2016 vice-presidential victory before the Supreme Court.
The Marcos regime is said to have left thousands of victims of torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, based on government records.
