Pimentel bats anew for abolition of PCGG

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday called for the abolition of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) for failing to recover a huge portion of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies, particularly the Pl5 billion worth of jewelry of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos and the coconut levy assets believed to be worth about Pl00 billion.

Pimentel said the ineptness of the PCGG in getting back these plundered assets and pursuing the criminal cases against the Marcoses and their cronies in court only lend credence to the suspicion of a secret compromise deal between the government and the private parties involved.

“What is more appalling is that the government is now thinking of turning over the jewel hoard to Mrs. Marcos due to supposed failure to file the necessary cases in court, as admitted by newly designated Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez, former secretary of justice,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said the logical course of action is to abolish the PCGG since it has failed to live up to its mandate. He said the commission has outlived its usefulness and has now become a big embarrassment to the government.

“The PCGG has been in existence for the last 23 years and it has been repeatedly reminded to do its job. Twenty three years are more than enough for any agency to perform its functions. If after that long period of time, and they still failed to establish whether the sequestered assets are ill-gotten or not and who are the owners of these assets, they will not be able to do so even if you would give another hundred years. It would be better to abolish the agency,” he said.

Pimentel said the abolition of the PCGG does not mean that the recovery of plundered wealth and its proper disposition will no longer be pursued.

He said these functions would be transferred to the government agencies, which can legally assume responsibility and have the expertise to undertake and continue such functions.

He said the powers and functions of the PCGG should be transferred to two other government agencies, as contained in Senate Bill 292 he has authored.

The PCGG’s authority to investigate and prosecute criminal and civil cases involving ill-gotten wealth should be taken over by the Office of Special Prosecutor of the Ombudsman.

On the other hand, Pimentel said the management and disposition of the assets and properties that were sequestered by the PCGG shall be turned over to and exercised by the Department of Finance through its Privatization Office.

He said the Senate should ask an explanation from Malacañang and the PCGG on why the Radio Philippines Network-Channel 9 and Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp.-Channel l3 remain under government control instead of being privatized.

“What happened to the administration’s privatization plan for the two sequestered broadcast networks? In the meantime, these broadcast networks are being used as mouthpiece of the administration. That is not right,” he said.

“That is not what makes a good society where the media or medium of communication are controlled by the government. If ever these media facilities are controlled by the government, they should be run like the British Broadcasting Corp. in the United Kingdom where they operate like free agents in which both pro- and anti-government views are heard.”