EDITORIAL - PCGG report card

Now that the Supreme Court has given the Senate the go-signal to summon officials of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, there are hopes that the public may get a better picture of the way the PCGG is running sequestered companies. The SC stepped in after PCGG officials refused to appear before the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises, which is investigating the possible dissipation of assets of the Philippine Overseas Telecommunications Corp. and the Philippine Communication Satellite Corp. The refusal prompted the Senate to order the arrest of PCGG officials led by Chairman Camilo Sabio. He was arrested but the commissioners went into hiding.

The legal tussle is not yet over. Yesterday PCGG officials said they were asking the high court to reconsider its ruling. The officials are insisting that Executive Order No. 1, which created the PCGG, gave them immunity from congressional inquiries. The high court had ruled that the order, issued by Corazon Aquino in her first year as president, was repealed when the Constitution was ratified in 1987. The tribunal does not seem likely to reverse itself on this case. A final ruling could be out shortly after the Senate, which is on its annual protracted Halloween break, resumes session.

When the investigation resumes, the PCGG will have to make a public accounting of what’s left of the assets of Philcomsat and POTC. The Senate should not stop there. With the Supreme Court’s ruling on EO No. 1, it’s time for the public to find out the status of all companies that were sequestered after the 1986 people power revolt. Two decades after the sequestration of many of those companies, their ownerships remain unresolved, and their board seats continue to be doled out as political rewards by whoever is in power.

It will not be surprising if assets of many of the companies have been dissipated over the years. Senators conducting the probe said they wanted a "report card" from the PCGG about the sequestered companies. That report card could finally lead to the long overdue abolition of the PCGG.