PCGG chief says he won’t quit despite pressure from Senate

Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio said yesterday he will not resign despite threats by the Senate to cut the agency’s budget for 2006 to zero.

Sabio was reacting to a news report the other day that Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita had said he was acting purely on his own when he decided to negotiate a compromise deal with (SMC) chairman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco.

Asked to comment on Ermita’s statement, Sabio simply said: "The President has confidence in me."

He stressed that there is no reason for him to resign at the moment, although he vowed earlier to resign if the coconut levy fund issue is not settled by the end of this year.

Sabio has been pushing for a compromise deal with Cojuangco on the 27-percent share in the company owned by coconut farmers. This, he said, is to fast-track the distribution of the assets to the coconut farmers.

Sabio reiterated President Arroyo’s marching orders to ensure that any deal follows the law and is not disadvantageous to the government and the people.

"There is no reason to resign. The only instruction from the President is to follow the law," Sabio said.            

Sabio’s refusal to answer questions at a Senate hearing this week prompted the Senate finance committee to slash the PCGG’s budget.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joker Arroyo has urged Sabio to quit his various positions with 29 government-sequestered corporations.

"It is downright untenable and deplorable. As PCGG chairman, he is pursuing these sequestered corporations for ill-gotten wealth. Yet, he chairs the same sequestered corporations that he is going after," Arroyo said.

The senator previously criticized Sabio and other PCGG commissioners for holding various positions in the boards of the sequestered corporations.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile has also demanded that Sabio be fired as PCGG chairman because of his supposed refusal to recognize the authority of Congress over the PCGG during the recent budget hearing at the Senate.

However, Sabio said that Enrile and Senators Edgardo Angara and Franklin Drilon were themselves involved in the coconut levy issue. Enrile and Angara were defendants in Civil Case No. 033 involving the coconut levy shares in SMC while Drilon founded the First Meridian Development Corp., which was involved in a business connected with the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF). — Sandy Araneta, Marvin Sy