GCG pushes charter change to strengthen mandate

MANILA, Philippines — The Governance Commission for Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG) is pushing for a stronger mandate to efficiently operate as a regulatory body.

GCG chairperson Alex Quiroz said amendments to Republic Act 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011 would further strengthen the agency’s mandate.

“In order to efficiently operate as a regulatory body for the GOCC sector, RA 10149 is proposed to be amended to address issues and clarify and strengthen the powers and functions of the GCG,” Quiroz said.

In the performance of the agency’s duties and functions during the past years, several issues have been raised regarding the scope and even legality of the GCG’s powers and functions under its charter.

Quiroz and GCG commissioner Gideon Mortel met with House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to discuss the proposed amendments.

Mortel said there were already draft bills to be submitted to the House leadership as he discussed it with the Paranaque First District Representative Edwin Olivarez, the chairperson of the House Committee on Government Enterprises and Privatization.

Last December, the GCG also submitted the proposed amendments to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises.

Among the salient points of the proposed amendments is the standardization of the definition of GOCCs.

For continuity and efficiency in the discharge of its mandates, the GCG is also seeking to fix the terms of office of the GCG chairperson and commissioners and create an office for a GCG executive director.

To strengthen its oversight powers, the agency is asking Congress for subpoena and contempt powers as well as investigative and disciplinary powers.

It is also seeking express power to consolidate, rationalize, and integrate GOCCs into national government agencies (NGAs).

The agency also proposed to be granted the authority to determine the appropriate incentive programs for all employees affected by any rationalization, reorganization, merger, consolidation, integration into an NGA, abolition, or privatization of GOCCs.

Quiroz said that a study of the profiles of GOCCs under the GCG indicates that some GOCCs have functions that are duplicative of what is already being carried out by other NGAs or GOCCs.

“We can recommend to the Office of the President that it would be economical for those GOCCs which are not financially viable, but are performing vital public service, to be converted into or transferred to NGAs,” Quiroz said.