MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has ordered officials of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to explain how they accumulated almost $1 million in travel expenses in just the first six months of the year.

Gonzalez said the amount was too high considering that he had already prohibited foreign travel using government funds unless the trips were “very, very necessary.”

He said he took up the issue at a meeting with PCGG commissioners and employees last Wednesday.

Gonzalez said he received a letter asking him to look into the allegedly “exorbitant” travel expenses of the PCGG commissioners not just in the past six months but in the past three years PCGG Chair Camilo Sabio’s leadership.

“I am now investigating that because as early as May, I ordered all agencies under the Department of Justice to refrain from unnecessary travel especially travels where government funds are used,” Gonzalez said Friday.

He said he had instructed that travel was to be limited to invitational ones where the host would shoulder the cost, unless the trip was really necessary.

Gonzalez said he would personally look into the reasons for the PCGG trips and then refer his findings to the Commission on Audit.

He said he also noticed that in many of these trips, Sabio had many people with him.

“They justify that by saying that lawyers have to be with him. But when you travel, bring with you only the people who are necessary. Otherwise it would become a junket,” he said.

While the PCGG remains under the Office of the President, it has been placed under the direct supervision of the justice department.

The PCGG was created in 1986 after the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos to go after the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos, his relatives and his cronies.

Sabio is on indefinite leave while facing a disbarment case for meddling in a case between the Government Service Insurance System and Manila Electric Co. that was before the Court of Appeals where his brother is an associate justice.

Gonzalez said he has also ordered the Office of the Solicitor General to explain its staff’s travels to accompany PCGG officials abroad.

According to press reports, the PCGG charged $958,751 in travel expenses from January to June this year from the PCGG’s $34.14-million “foreign litigation fund” that is deposited with the Philippine National Bank.

The agency apparently exceeded the total allowable foreign travel expenses last year.