Press Release
July 4, 2007

PIMENTEL REVIVES PROPOSAL TO DISSOLVE PCGG

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) has revived the proposal to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

Pimentel initiated this move in the wake of reports that the sequestration of rest houses, mansions and other properties of the Marcoses has been lifted by the PCGG despite evidence showing they were part of the ill-gotten wealth of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Pimentel filed Senate Bill 202 seeking the abolition of the PCGG created under Executive Order No. 1 issued on Feb. 28, 1986 by then President Corazon C. Aquino. This is a modified version of the same bill that he introduced way back in 1998.

Pimentel recommended that PCGG officials and employees who will lose their jobs as a result of the PCGG's phaseout, whether permanent, contractual or casual, shall be given gratuities equivalent to two months salary for every year of service without prejudice to other benefits to which they are entitled under existing laws and regulations.

Despite the awesome investigative, sequestration and prosecution powers granted to the PCGG, he said the accomplishments of the Commission, which was intended to be a temporary or ad hoc body, fell short of its objective and public expectations.

"Twenty-one years after its creation, the PCGG has not produced any significant accomplishments that would justify its continued existence," Pimentel said.

He bewailed that the bulk of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses, believed to be stashed away in foreign banks and investment houses, has not been recovered.

One of the biggest failures of the PCGG is that an estimated P100 billion in sequestered coconut levy assets invested in the San Miguel Corp. and coconut oil mills have not been turned over to the government due to poor handling of court cases. This has deprived millions of coconut farmers of resources to bail them out from the economic hardships which can be done by rehabilitating the moribund coconut industry and providing them alternative means of livelihood.

The PCGG is now working for an out-of-court settlement of the coconut levy cases.

Pimentel said the most notable achievement of the PCGG so far was the recovery of the $670 million Marcos deposits from Swiss banks. But he said this was largely the result of the efforts of the first batch of PCGG officials under Chairman Jovito Salonga, who later became Senate President.

He said it is ironic that none of the members of the Marcos family or any of their cronies charged with plundering the national treasury and economy has been convicted and jailed despite voluminous piles of documentary evidence gathered by the PCGG.

Under Senate Bill 202, the powers and functions of investigation and prosecution of criminal and civil cases exercised by the PCGG shall be transferred to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Ombudsman of the Philippines.

On the other hand, the management and disposition of the assets and properties vested in the PCGG shall be transferred to and exercised by the Department of Finance through its Privatization Office.

The bill provides that all sequestered real and personal assets and properties previously under the control and management of the PCGG as well as all contracts, records and documents relating to the operation of the PCGG are transferred to the Privatization Office.

The Pimentel bill also provides:

In coordination with the Commission on Audit, a physical inventory and complete accounting of the sequestered properties and assets shall be jointly made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Privatization Office within 60 days after the effectivity of this Act.

All properties, equipment and funds of the PCGG will be transferred to the DoF-Privatization Office.

Only PCGG officials and employees who are competent honest and dedicated to duty may be absorbed by the Office of the Special Prosecutor and by the DoF-Privatization Office.

The amount of P60 million will be allocated for the separation benefits of PCGG officials and employees out of the ill-gotten wealth recovered by the Commission.

All contracts and agreements entered into by the PCGG prior to the effectivity of this Act shall remain in full force and effect unless otherwise terminated, modified nor amended for lawful cause.

All directors/nominees, asset monitors or representatives assigned by the PCGG to the sequestered or surrendered companies shall continue as such in a holdover capacity and shall receive the corresponding salaries, emoluments and benefits until the appointment of their successors as recommended jointly by the Ombudsman and the Secretary of Finance for the approval of the President.

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