Lawmakers to Palace: Go easy on abolishing GOCCs

MANILA, Philippines - A member of the independent bloc in the House of Representatives warned yesterday that Malacañang was rushing to abolish government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) that were allegedly involved in the pork barrel scam to cover up for allies of the Aquino administration.

Abakada-Guro party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz said there were also reports coming from the Commission on Audit (COA) that there were other individuals, apart from alleged pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, that were reportedly involved in skimming off funds for GOCCs.

He cited in particular the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor), Philippine Forest Corp. (PhilForest), ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp. and the Technology Resource Center (TRC), among others that allegedly facilitated dubious or non-existent projects funded by pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of lawmakers.

“Why are they abolishing these agencies right now? They have not even concluded their own findings about these agencies, they have not even given a report to Congress, they have not even given a report to Malacañang,” he said.

He said the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) has not yet completed its review of the agencies.

“So why are they abolishing these? Are they trying to hide something, are they trying to shred the evidence?” De la Cruz added.

Former Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said Malacañang could not unilaterally abolish GOCCs with charters without the approval of Congress. “Congressional repeal of the statutory charters of GOCCs is indispensable before they can be abolished even as the scam-tainted GOCCs, whether organized by law or registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), should be prioritized for appropriate abolition,” Lagman said.

“Congress has the exclusive authority to repeal laws and the President cannot be delegated the power of dismantling GOCCs with original or statutory charters because this would be repealing acts of Congress,” he said. However, GOCCs organized under the SEC can be abolished without legislation, he said, adding the separation of legislative and executive powers is enshrined in the Constitution.

He said this was the reason he filed during the 15th Congress a petition with the Supreme Court under G.R. No. 197422 challenging the constitutionality of Republic Act No. 10149 creating the GCG, which allows the President to arrogate legislative power by repealing or amending legislative charters of GOCC and violates the constitutionally-protected security of tenure of officials and employees under the civil service by pre-terminating their tenure.

Meanwhile, state-owned Trade and Investment Development Corp. of the Philippines (Tidcorp), also known as the Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (PhilEXIM), has defended its sustained profitability, its officials said.

Tidcorp president and CEO Francisco Magsajo Jr. explained that being an attached agency of the Department of Finance, its financial and operational viability continues to support the government’s development agenda.

He said the agency’s P1.01-billion cumulative net profit performance over the last six years is a demonstration of its value to the national economy.

It has also consistently remitted dividends to the national government, he further declared.

“Our existence as a development financial institution in over three and a half decades, particularly during the last six years, has been nothing less remarkable. We operate on self-sustainability as this has been the hallmark of our strong financial and corporate governance. Our 108-strong personnel are among the millions of government workers who tirelessly work hard to achieve our pursuits,” said Magsajo.

Tidcorp has been listed as one of the 19 losing GOCCs under a bill filed by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and his brother, Abante Mindanao party-list Rep. Maximo Rodriguez which seeks to abolish these agencies for either being underperforming or involved in the recent pork barrel scam. 

Magsajo defended the agency’s professional track record in fulfilling its mandate of financial intermediation to the banking sector, small enterprises and priority industries.