PCGG execs need DOJ clearance to travel

MANILA, Philippines – Officials of the Presidential Commission on Good Government must now get clearance from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez before they can travel abroad.

Gonzales issued the new travel requirement last Tuesday on the recommendation of Commissioner Narciso Nario, PCGG officer-in-charge.

“It is hereby directed that all applications for travel authority for foreign travel by PCGG commissioners should be submitted to this office for prior clearance and approval,” read the order of Gonzalez.

“Furthermore, no application for travel authority shall be acted upon without the favorable recommendation of the chairperson or the officer-in-charge.”

A graft complaint has been filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio, who is now on indefinite leave of absence, and several other PCGG officers and rank-and-file personnel for having gone on unnecessary foreign travels from January to June of this year, using up some $958,751 of their $34.14-million foreign litigation fund.

The foreign trips were taken by the PCGG officials and employees supposedly to check on various recovery cases pending before the courts of different countries.

The PCGG has been placed under the DOJ’s supervision.

The foreign litigation fund was set up in January 2004 from a small portion of the more than $600-million Marcos deposits in Switzerland that the government finally acquired from an escrow account in the Philippine National Bank.

The fund was set up by former PCGG chair Haydee Yorac to settle legal fees of foreign lawyers retained by the government in recovery cases pending before courts abroad.