Joker Arroyo: PCGG has outlived its purpose

Senator Joker Arroyo. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/MATIKAS SANTOS

MANILA, Philippines—The Presidential Commission on Good Government has outlived its purpose and it’s about time the Department of Justice take over from where it would leave, Sen. Joker Arroyo said on Wednesday.

Arroyo was the executive secretary in 1986 when then President Corazon Aquino created the PCGG to chase the alleged multibillion-dollar loot of the Marcoses and their cronies after the dictatorship fell.

“[Its] mandate has run its course. It is problematic whether the government can gather additional evidence after 26 years. The main task of the PCGG—to gather evidence and build up the cases—has been winnowed by time,” Arroyo said in a statement.

Arroyo said that while recovery of ill-gotten wealth, mandated by Cory Aquino’s Executive Order Nos. 1, 2, 14 and 14-A, was a valid advocacy, the PCGG’s mandate was “time-limited by the very nature of the campaign.”

“It was one of the centerpieces of Cory’s crusade for good governance. And the campaign has had a good run,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo added that Congress has also extended the life of the PCGG quite a number of times.