Planned abolition of PCGG opposed

Filipinos can say goodbye to the estimated $7 billion worth of still-unrecovered ill-gotten assets and properties of the Marcos family should House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s bill abolishing the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) be passed into law.

Bonifacio Ilagan, martial law survivor and convener of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (Carmma), told the Inquirer on Monday that Alvarez’s plan to streamline the functions of the PCGG and put it under the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is nothing short of “ridiculous,” especially since the task of recovering the ill-gotten wealth of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his kin would then be placed under the aegis of Jose Calida, a “staunch Marcos defender.”

“These are indeed good times for the Marcoses and bad for the Filipino people. If the bill becomes law, we can all say goodbye to the $7 [billion] that the PCGG said still needed to be returned by the Marcoses,” Ilagan said in a text message.

Since its creation in 1986, the PCGG has only sequestered more than P170.4 billion worth of assets, or roughly $3.4 billion. It is estimated that the dictator and his family illegally amassed during their two decade rule around $5 million to $10 million.

In House Bill (HB) No. 5233, or the OSG Charter, the functions of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel that services government-owned and controlled corporations, and the PCGG’s primary task of recovering the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, would be consolidated under one roof.

Ilagan warned that HB 5233 was but another step by the Duterte administration “to rehabilitate the Marcoses and put them back in power in due time.”

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