Abolition of PCGG long overdue, says Imee

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos answers questions from reporters at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum, May 9. INQUIRER.NET PHOTO/CATHY MIRANDA

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos has described as “a welcome development” that is “really overdue” the move in Congress to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), an agency tasked to run after her family’s ill-gotten wealth.

“The PCGG abolition is a welcome development, although I do not know if it will advance in the Senate,” the daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos told reporters in a chance interview in Las Piñas City.

“What I know is this is really overdue, because under the law [during the time of President Corazon Aquino], the PCGG should only have lasted one year. It is really puzzling why it went on for 30 years,” Marcos said.

No sunset provision

There is, however, no sunset provision in Executive Order (EO) No. 1, which created PCGG to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies. The EO was Aquino’s first official act upon assuming the presidency after the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.

The family of the dictator and their cronies are said to have amassed between $5 billion and $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved a bill abolishing the PCGG and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel and transferring the functions of the two agencies to the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).

Cool to the idea

But Senate leaders are cool to the idea with Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate justice committee, saying he is no longer inclined to support the proposal, believing it is better to strengthen PCGG’s mandate.

Marcos said she found nothing wrong with the proposal to transfer PCGG’s functions to the OSG under Solicitor General Jose Calida, who supported her brother, former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during the 2016 vice presidential campaign.

“In my view, SolGen Calida is a professional. He has no involvement there, and I don’t know if there’s any backlash toward him at all,” she said.

The governor added that under the House bill, the PCGG would not be abolished but only absorbed into the OSG.

“So those who filed cases, these will still continue, and we will continue with what we’re fighting for,” she said.