PCGG welcomes transfer to DOJ

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) welcomes the agency’s transfer to the supervision of the Department of Justice.

In a statement from Jakarta, Indonesia, lawyer Nicasio Conti, PCGG co-commissioner in charge of litigation, said the agency saw the move as a positive development that could improve matters, especially in expediting their litigation of foreign cases.

“The move is a step in the right direction as we try to pursue domestic and foreign cases to (their) logical conclusion,” he said.

“DOJ has the expertise, wherewithal and the constitutional capability to support PCGG as it fulfills its mandate to recover illegally amassed wealth during the Marcos regime, and this could mean more recoveries.”

Nick Suarez, PCGG information office chief, said PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio had also expressed the same views as Conti.

Being placed under the DOJ would facilitate coordination between PCGG and the DOJ in foreign cases, he added.

Conti said its concerted recovery efforts with the active cooperation of various government agencies have yielded around P106 billion.

“The P106 billion in recovered ill-gotten Marcos wealth was made up of P83 billion in cash, and assets and properties now subjects of privatization, valued at around P24 billion,” he said. 

“These recoveries do not include claims under litigation in several civil cases before the Sandiganbayan amounting to around P200 billion,” Conti said, adding that more than 60 percent of the recovery was achieved under the Arroyo administration.

“The case against the Marcos family and their cronies is still in process,” said Conti during his talk.

Conti is in Jakarta attending the National Workshop on Asset Recovery and the roundtable discussion organized by the Indonesian government to tackle initiatives towards convening the Second Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

At the conference, Conti talked about the PCGG’s strategy to recover assets amassed by the Marcos family and cronies which they carried out in three fronts, namely, the Philippines, United States of America and Switzerland.

– With Sandy Araneta