The Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City. (Photo from the Facebook account of the House of Representatives)
MANILA, Philippines — Two House lawmakers are seeking the abolition of two agencies, including the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), and an office of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) supposedly in line with government efforts at rightsizing the bureaucracy.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed House Bills No. 4197 and 4204, the first for the abolition of the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) and the other to get rid of the Procurement Service of the DBM (PS-DBM), which he maintained were “redundant and irrelevant in these current times.”
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante has filed House Bill No. 4331 at the House of Representatives to abolish the PCGG, an agency created 36 years ago to go after the ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his cronies.
In May 2018 the House approved on final reading House bill No. 7376, which sought to abolish the PCGG and the Office of the Government Counsel. A Senate bill in 2019, however, rejected the abolition of the agencies.
—JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE
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