Aquino questions Duterte plan to abolish PCGG, CHR

Former President Noynoy Aquino. DEXTER CABALZA/INQUIRER

Former President Benigno Aquino III does not agree that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) should be abolished.

“Has the PCGG finished its work? During my time, there were still recoveries and there [was] still [ill-gotten wealth] that had to be recovered. Let’s admit it, we haven’t completed the work. We are not even sure if there is one person still alive who knows all about this wealth being recovered,” Aquino said.

He spoke to reporters after the Mass held at Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City on Tuesday to commemorate the eighth death anniversary of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

As for the CHR, as long as there are rights that need to be protected, this agency must not be abolished, he said.

Perfect society

“As long as we haven’t achieved a perfect society, I think there will always be a need for an agency like the Commission on Human Rights,” he added.

Both the PCGG and the CHR were established following the restoration of democracy in the Philippines after the fall from power of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.

The establishment of the PCGG was the first official act of Cory Aquino after she assumed the presidency in that year.

The PCGG was tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos, his family and their cronies, estimated to be worth  $5 billion to $10 billion.

Since its establishment in 1987, however, the PCGG has recovered only $3.6 billion in cash, and not one of the Marcoses or their associates have been convicted of plunder.

There had been a number of initiatives to abolish the PCGG, especially after some agency officials themselves had been accused of corruption.

Rightsizing act

This time, the Duterte administration plans to abolish the PCGG through the proposed Rightsizing the National Government Act of 2017, currently pending in the House of Representatives.

In an address to a joint session of Congress two weeks ago, President Duterte said the measure was among his administration’s priority bills.

It was also in that speech that Mr. Duterte threatened to abolish the CHR, which has been critical of human rights abuses in his brutal war on drugs.

The CHR was established under the 1987 Constitution and mandated to protect the civil and political rights of Filipinos.

The CHR is tasked with investigating human rights abuses, but is seen as a toothless tiger because it has no prosecutorial powers.