Abolition of PCGG being considered, says DBM chief Diokno

Budge Secretary Benjamin Diokno (Malacañang photo)

The government is thinking of abolishing the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of former president Ferdinand Marcos, under a wider plan to downsize the executive branch.

“There are many specific recommendations for policy actions under the rightsizing bill. One such proposal is to abolish the PCGG and to transfer its remaining activities to the Department of Justice,” Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said Wednesday.

Diokno was referring to a bill, entitled Rightsizing the National Government Act of 2017, which is currently pending approval in Congress.

During his State of the Nation Address last Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte identified the rightsizing bill as among his administration’s priority bills.

Diokno had said that the proposed rightsizing program “has a function-based approach that would abolish executive agencies with overlapping or redundant operations and functions that result in ineffective and inefficient in the delivery of public services.”

With regards the possible abolition of the PCGG, Diokno clarified that “it’s a proposal,“ adding that there was nothing definite about it yet.

“The decision will be made by a committee to be chaired by the Executive Secretary as proposed in the law,” he said. “All decisions by the committee will be in the nature of an executive order to be signed by the President.” /atm