Imelda doesn’t want PCGG abolished

Former First Lady Imelda Marcos is not in favor of the proposed abolition of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency created by then President Corazon Aquino to go after the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

Ding Diaz, spokesman for Mrs. Marcos, said that as far as the former first lady is concerned, the issue of the abolition of the PCGG is irrelevant.

"It is already irrelevant, as far as Mrs. Marcos is concerned, the PCGG was created to prosecute and persecute the Marcoses and for 20 years they have failed," Diaz said.

Diaz said the PCGG should not be abolished at this time when the cases filed by the agency against the Marcoses are being dismissed in the courts, because it would put "color" to the acquittal of the Marcos family.

Mrs. Marcos believes that the PCGG will be the stepping stone of the Marcoses to clear their name, Diaz said.

"I believe Mrs. Marcos would not want the PCGG to be abolished because what she wants is to finish all the cases filed against them until the very end. She wants to fight it out," he added.

Diaz said the Marcos family is confident of being cleared even if the PCGG is not abolished and pursues all the cases.

He said only 100 cases remain out of the more than 900 cases filed against the Marcos family after most of them were dismissed and not one case was directly linked to either Imelda or the Marcos family.

Senators led by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Richard Gordon and Joker Arroyo had called for the abolition of the PCGG because the agency had failed in its task to go after the hidden wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies.

PCGG Commissioner Nicasio Conti said the agency has contributed more than P61 billion to the National Treasury from recovered ill-gotten wealth over the years.

PCGG Commissioner Ricardo Abcede said it is the Senate that should be abolished and not the PCGG after the senators only passed nine bills in the past months.

Human rights lawyer Rod Domingo also favors the abolition of the PCGG after the agency blocked the supposed payment of indemnity to the 10,000 martial law victims. — Sandy Araneta