Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/EDWIN BACASMAS
Opposition lawmaker, Albay First District Rep. Edcel Lagman, on Saturday described as weak and flawed the newly created Philippine Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) of the administration.
Lagman’s reaction came after Malacañang issued Executive Order No. 43 creating the PACC, which is mandated to “directly assist the President in investigating and/or hearing administrative cases primarily involving graft and corruption against all presidential appointees.”
Lagman said PACC is “congenitally infirm” and flawed from the very beginning as it was created out of spite and vengeance.
“It is flawed from the beginning, since no less than (President Rodrigo) Duterte himself projected the establishment of the PACC after the Ombudsman ordered the investigation of the unexplained wealth of Duterte and his family,” Lagman said in a statement.
READ: Duterte creates Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission
Lagman said PACC violates the Constitution and R.A. No. 6770 or the “Ombudsman Act of 1989,” which created the Office of the Ombudsman, “for illegally duplicating and intruding into the authority and powers of the Ombudsman to investigate public officials and employees, including those in the military and police establishments, for graft as basis for prosecution or impeachment.”
The lawmaker also noted that the “President does not have any jurisdiction, through the PACC, to investigate presidential appointees,” such as the Ombudsman, top officials of constitutional bodies, and those who are outside of the executive department.
Malacañang, however, said the creation of PACC was necessitated to aid the needed reforms and cleansing of agencies in the government. /jpv