DOJ: Current PCGG leadership had little involvement in Marcos cases

MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra welcomed potential Senate hearings into the Presidential Commission on Good Governance over a series of losses in forfeiture cases against the Marcoses.

He pointed out, however, out that the probe should be directed at the commission's past leadership.

In a message to reporters, Guevarra said that he welcomes “any legislative intent to strengthen the PCGG,” an agency under the Justice department.

The PCGG is the government body created to go after ill-gotten wealth of the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

The commission has suffered a series of losses at the Sandiganbayan in recent months. The latest was on Monday, when the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division junked a P200-billion civil forfeiture case against the Marcos family.

'Sending wrong message'

Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Justice and Blue Ribbon committees, said there seems to be something “broken” in the PCGG that needs “fixing.”

"There’s a case of urgency here. They’re sending the wrong message to our country that people get away with their wrongdoings and that if you’re patient enough, your cases will be dismissed," the senator added.

But Guevarra pointed out: “For purposes, however, of knowing how the PCGG handled the Marcos cases, it should be the past PCGG leadership who should be summoned to explain”.

"The current officials of the PCGG had hardly any involvement in the cases except to await the rendition of judgment," Guevarra added.

The PCGG is currently chaired by Reynold Munsayac.

The latest case that the government lost, Civil Case No. 002, was filed in 1987. Like other cases against the Marcoses and their cronies that the Sandiganbayan dismissed, the court said that pieces of evidences filed by the prosecution were mere photocopies.

In the latest ruling, the Sandiganbayan cknowledged the “atrocities committed during Martial Law under the Marcos regime and the ‘plunder’ committed on the country’s resources,” but stressed that they cannot order forfeiture with lack of sufficient evidence.

Earlier in December, the PCGG, however, won a civil forfeiture case against the Marcoses as the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division awarded the shares of three sequestered companies owned by alleged cronies to the government.