Sabio to resign over possible entry of new commissioner?

MANILA, Philippines – The rumored reappointment of former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) commissioner Nicasio Conti to the agency could very well decide whether chairman Camilo Sabio would stay or quit in the next days.

Sabio may have to make the decision with the reported Malacañang reentry of Conti in lieu of another former commissioner of the agency, William Dichoso, who had served as member of the board of directors of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

Sabio is reportedly opposing Conti’s reappointment for undisclosed reasons.

Sources at the PCGG said Sabio announced during last week’s flag raising ceremony that he would resign from his post if rumors about Conti’s imminent reappointment to the agency prove true.

In a phone interview with The STAR last Saturday, Sabio denied issuing such statement.

However, he admitted that Conti’s reappointment was not welcome.

“I don’t want to work with him,” Sabio said.

It was learned that the reported reappointment of Conti, now in the United Kingdom pursuing post-graduate studies on public sector reform under the prestigious Chevening Scholarship program, has produced confusion among PCGG employees.

Sabio, it will be recalled, had recently ordered the investigation of Conti over allegations made by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile during a privilege speech at the Senate that the PCGG solicited P1 million contribution from a sequestered company for its Christmas party in 2005.

Sabio said Conti headed the Christmas party committee in 2005 and should be the one investigated.

Dichoso has reportedly taken his oath of office for a second tour of duty at the PCGG last Jan. 25 with Sandiganbayan justice Alexander Segismundo.

The PCGG chairman is now struggling to clean up the image of the agency, formed in 1986 by President Corazon Aquino to go after the ill-gotten wealth of the family of the late deposed strongman Ferdinand Marcos and their cronies.

Respondents in a Social Weather Stations poll survey commissioned by the Makati Business Club named the PCGG as the least sincere in fighting corruption.

The commission is also facing calls for its abolition from senators, who said the PCGG had miserably failed to fulfill its mandate and even aided, if not participated in the dissipation of sequestered assets.

Sabio had recently blamed the negative public perception of PCGG to the slew of news reports that included investigation on his person by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission for allegedly receiving P10 million in cash advances from a sequestered real estate firm that holds title to the multi-billion peso “Payanig sa Pasig” land in Pasig City.