If elected president, will PCGG be abolished? ‘I have not thought about it’, Marcos says

Bongbong Marcos: Abolish PCGG? I have not thought about that.
INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Monday he has not thought of the possibility of abolishing the  Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) if he is elected president.

The PCGG’s primary task is to recover the ill-gotten wealth of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his family, relatives, and subordinates.

“I have no idea, never ko pa naiisip yan in the last ilang taon na. To be perfectly candid, I don’t know. I have not thought about it at all,” Marcos Jr. said in an interview with One News PH when asked if he would abolish the PCGG if elected president.

(I have no idea. I have not thought about that in the last few years. To be perfectly candid, I don’t know. I have not thought about it at all.)

The PCGG, created by Executive Order No. 1, the first edict that the late Corazon Aquino signed shortly after assuming power after People Power 1, is still trying to recover more than P125 billion worth of Marcos assets—which were allegedly part of the family’s ill-gotten wealth.

Former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio earlier said that P328 billion-worth of “ill-gotten” wealth and unpaid taxes from the Marcos family might no longer be recovered if Marcos Jr. gets elected president.

Atty. Vic Rodriguez, Marcos Jr.’s spokesperson, has dubbed Carpio’s claims as “purely speculative.”

“We do not respond to a purely speculative scenario concocted by the same man who espouses divisiveness instead of national unity and has wrongly led equally righteous groups and individuals like him, in filing the numerous nuisance petitions against presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos,” Rodriguez said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.

“His signature ‘yellow political tirades’ purposely meant to foment intrigue such as this are better left ignored,” he added.

READ: If Bongbong Marcos wins, P328 B’ ill-gotten’ wealth, unpaid taxes may not be recovered – Carpio