House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. CDN FILE PHOTO/Junjie Mendoza
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has made good on his promise to seek the expansion of the Office of the Solicitor General’s (OSG) functions and the absorption of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) under the agency.
Alvarez has filed House Bill No. 5233, or the OSG Charter, which proposes to consolidate functions related to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC) and the recovery of ill-gotten wealth under just the government’s primary law office.
According to the proposed measure, the OCGG sometimes refers its cases to the OSG anyway while the OSG has been representing the PCGG, the agency tasked to recover the wealth amassed from public funds during the 21-year rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
“The OSG, as the primary law office of the government, continues to render legal services to GOCCs and the PCGG,” the explanatory note read.
“In order to achieve economy, eliminate overlapping of functions, addressing the expanding needs of GOCCs for legal representation, and enhance government efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth and investigate and prosecute cases related thereto, the legal services mentioned above must be consolidated into one office,” it said.
However, this meant OGCC and PCGG lawyers and personnel would not be automatically absorbed to the OSG. The bill says doing so would “defeat the purpose” of streamlining the functions.
Instead, the affected employees will be allowed to “apply for the needed positions, without prejudice to their entitlement to full retirement gratuity and pension.”
Personnel who have reached 50 and have served the government for at least 15 years (with at least the past five years served at the OGCC or PCGG) will be entitled to full retirement gratuity and pension.
The proposed measure will place the Department of Justice-attached agency under the supervision of the Office of the President to ensure that it becomes a “truly independent and autonomous office.”
Under the bill coauthored by Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Justice committee chair Reynaldo Umali, the OSG will review all GOCC contracts prior to execution and enforce the Property Insurance Law.
The bill’s explanatory note states that the OSG should take a “more proactive stance” in ensuring the GOCC contracts strictly conform to the regulations to avoid lawsuits.
As for the PCGG functions, the OSG will take over the filing and prosecution of forfeiture cases to recover ill-gotten wealth.
The number of OSG legal divisions, which have 10 lawyers each, will be increased to at least 50 from the current 30.
Salary levels for the solicitors will still be the same, with the Solicitor General still at Salary Grade 31. But the bill upgrades his allowances, benefits and privileges to that of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
State solicitors will be able to enjoy the same privileges as judges, prosecutors and public attorneys under the proposal.