Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra TOTO LOZANO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra disagrees with the proposal by some lawmakers to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC).
The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a new charter for the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).
Under the measure, the PCGG and the OGCC will be abolished and the OSG will take over their functions.
The PCGG and OGCC are under the Department of Justice (DOJ) while the OSG is an attached agency of the DOJ.
“We respect the action of the House of Representatives but we’ll maintain our position to keep the PCGG and the OGCC under the wings of the Department of Justice,” Guevarra said in a text message on Thursday.
He said he did not think that the proposed OSG charter would be passed by Congress since there was no counterpart bill in the Senate.
The PCGG was tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies. It now oversees sequestered corporations and assets.
The OGCC represents all government-owned and -controlled corporations.
Under the House proposal, the OSG will become separate from the DOJ. — DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN