EDITORIAL - Misunderstanding the PCGG flap

The debate triggered by proposals to wind down the work of the PCGG is a classic example of what happens when somebody jumps into a lake without looking. All this debate takes us nowhere because it stems from a misunderstanding.

The proposal to wind down the work of the PCGG does not mean government is now throwing in the towel in its search for ill-gotten wealth, whether by the Marcoses or somebody else. All it means is that the PCGG has outlived its usefulness and must be replaced by something else.

Nowhere in the proposals does it say that government must stop going after ill-gotten wealth. On the contrary, what is being proposed is for government to pursue all ill-gotten wealth with even greater aggressiveness, using its other resources and agencies.

As for the PCGG, what is contained in the proposal is for everyone to look at it the way most people would look at their cellphones -- there simply comes a time when the unit in your hands no longer suits your increasing preferences and demands.

In other words, instead of the proposal to wind down the work of the PCGG being viewed as a stop or an end, it needs to be seen as a new beginning, a moving on. If the PCGG has ceased to be effective as a tool, the only thing to do is replace it with a better one.

The problem with is Filipinos is that we very easily get passionate and emotional over an issue even before we have fully come to terms with it. When the proposal came up, the immediate reaction was as if a declaration was made to stop looking for ill-gotten wealth altogether.

But nothing of the sort was ever made in the proposal. All that the proposal said was that the PCGG has become too unwieldy and ineffective for its mission and that it was time for the government to carry on the same mission with the different tools at its disposal.

Come to think of it, if only we had a government truly up to its job in protecting public interest, there wouldn't have been a need for special agencies to do particular jobs. Just being government should have been enough. But we are not like that. Our debating proves that.