PCGG targets 2-year completion of cases

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Despite setbacks and delays in court proceedings, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is confident it can finish all its cases by next year as targeted.

"PCGG is committed to achieving its mandates and goals. Despite our weaknesses, we are confident we will finish our cases in two years," PCGG Chairwoman Haydee Yorac said Friday night.

Yorac also gave assurances that the PCGG has been instituting reforms to strengthen and speed up its pursuit of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

Upon assuming office in July last year, Yorac deplored the lack of system at the 16-year-old PCGG. For instance, she said, records were either not properly compiled or, worse, missing, making it difficult to review the cases.

"Our commissioners had to pull out documents one by one from the shelves. This month, we began computerizing our records and in three months, this problem will no longer confront us," she said.

Yorac said the commission had been reviewing the compromise agreements forged by previous PCGG officials to determine which ones still have to be implemented or are lopsided.

The PCGG chief considered as a "temporary setback" the recent ruling of the Sandiganbayan that nullified its own decision in September 2000 forfeiting the $ 659.7 million Swiss account held in escrow at the Philippine National Bank in favor of the government.

The anti-graft court ruled that the PCGG failed to submit the "authenticated translation" of a Swiss court decision that the deposits belonged to the Marcoses and that much of them were of illegal provenance.

Yorac said the PCGG would consult Solicitor General Simeon Marcelo on the three options they could take to recover the assets.

These are to submit the documents required by the Sandiganbayan to elevate the case to the Supreme Court, and follow the proposal of former PCGG chief Jovito Salonga.

Salonga wanted a provision of the European Convention of Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters included in the proposed bilateral treaty between the Swiss and the Philippine governments. On the strength of the provision, the Philippines could get the money directly from the Swiss government without passing through judicial procedures.

"We are still trying to figure out what procedure to take next. Whatever it is, it will be for the purpose of hastening the process of the resolution of this case," Yorac maintained.