PCGG chief to extend leave

MANILA, Philippines – Beleaguered Presidential Commission on Good Government Chairman Camilo Sabio announced yesterday that he was complying with the “request” of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to extend his leave of absence and forgo his reassumption of the PCGG top post.

However, Sabio, in a press conference at the PCGG head office in Mandaluyong City yesterday to announce the extension of his leave, appealed to Gonzalez to request President Arroyo to place the PCGG under the control of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

Sabio also requested that Gonzalez name an officer-in-charge other than the previously appointed OIC, PCGG commissioner Narciso Nario.

“So immediately after this, I shall take my second leave of absence in compliance with the request and suggestion of the Honorable Secretary of Justice,” Sabio said after reading a draft letter he would send to Gonzalez informing the secretary of his extended leave.

“However, may I also ask of you the following: one, request Her Excellency the President to put the commission under the control of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, especially the records and other pertinent documents,” he said, reading from his draft letter.

“Two, do not allow commissioner Narciso Nario and his cohorts to lay their hands on the commission, especially the records of the surrendered Independent Realty Corporation (IRC) and so-called Payanig cases as well as the coco levy cases,” Sabio said.

According to him, the President had given him the task of looking over these cases, apparently not trusting Nario to handle them.

As a broadside against Nario, Sabio aired his concern that the OIC would arrange a compromise of many pending PCGG recovery cases.

Nario recently issued a statement regarding the reforms he will institute at the PCGG.

Sabio pointed out that Nario, while being the commissioner in charge of litigation, had recently ordered a check on the status of all pending cases upon assuming the post as PCGG OIC on Sept. 29.

“Now to our surprise, Commissioner Nario took over, he was reported to have announced to media to have immediately asked for the status of the cases. We were surprised because having been a retired chairman of the 4th division of the Sandiganbayan, he wanted and has been assigned as commissioner in charge of the legal department and litigation two years ago since 2006,” Sabio said.

“Why only now after two years would he ask what is the status of all these cases in the legal department. I was thinking: bakit? (why?) Subsequently he was reported to have said that he was in favor of compromise in cases where, to his mind, the evidence warrants,” he said.

Sabio revealed that Nario had earlier made statements that he was open to dismissing all the cases filed against the Marcos family, their associates and cronies.

“When I read the news report, I was reminded of a statement he made at a meeting in the presence of guests and all of us... that he was willing to dismiss all the cases against President Marcos, the former First Lady, their immediate relatives, associates, dummies, nominees, and cronies,” Sabio said.

He also raised the fact that Nario, during his chairmanship of the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division, had penned a ruling on the civil recovery case filed against the Marcos family and the estate of Ramon Cojuangco for the sequestered PLDT shares held by surrendered Prime Holdings, Inc., controlled by the Cojuangcos in trust for the Marcoses.

In that decision he ruled that the shares were not part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth.

Sabio recalled that the Nario-penned Sandiganbayan 4th division decision was reversed by the Supreme Court, paving the way for the forfeiture of the PLDT shares in favor of the government.

It also resulted in the second biggest recovery of the PCGG that happened under his watch, amounting to P26 billion.

However, Sabio said that his requests to have the PCGG placed under PAGC control and the naming of an OIC other than Nario were not pre-conditions to his going on leave.

“What can I do? Just the same, I’m taking a second a leave of absence this moment after this (presscon),” Sabio said.

The PCGG chair was emotional throughout the press briefing and at some point lost his temper when he ordered a broadsheet newspaper reporter (Manila Standard’s Florante Solmerin), whom he accused of maligning him through negative news articles, to step out of the PCGG Conference Room.

Sabio, in the press conference, admitted that he had issued a ban on the reporter. But he categorically denied stories that came out in another broadsheet that this reporter was also barred from entering the PCGG premises.

“And by the way, I did not ban The STAR. Rainier, I consider him fair to me,” he said.

Running on emotion

Nario, meanwhile, merely shrugged off Sabio’s statements against him, saying it was the prerogative of the President to name anybody she chose to head the PCGG as OIC.

He said Sabio’s statements might have been issued on “impulse” and “high emotion.”

Nario said that he will be focusing on the recovery efforts of the PCGG if given the chance to sit further as OIC.

“It’s time the commissioners join hands in accomplishing the mandate of the PCGG in recovering ill-gotten wealth. It’s not the time for any us to avoid, escaping the mandate by resorting to charges and counter-charges,” he said.