'Search for Marcos ill-gotten wealth not over'

MANILA, Philippines – Chairman Andres Bautista of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) clarified yesterday that the agency has not yet ended its global search for the ill-gotten wealth of the family and cronies of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

Bautista had proposed to Malacañang in late December 2010 the abolition in two to three years of the agency and its transformation into an Institute for Good Governance.

While the PCGG is winding down its affairs and business, they are still on the lookout for undiscovered Marcos ill-gotten wealth, he added.

The PCGG, under the Aquino administration, performed strongly, with sequestered and surrendered corporations, posting a consolidated net income of P2.8 billion in 2010 and going up to P3.3 billon in 2011, Bautista said.

Bautista assumed the PCGG post at the lowest point of the agency, after the scandal-ridden stewardship of Camilo Sabio, who had headed the agency for several years under the Arroyo administration.

It was during Sabio’s tenure when calls for the abolition of the agency became widespread from a disgruntled public.

This lingering disgust with the PCGG under Sabio was seen as the reason why Bautista’s proposal to abolish the agency in two to three years was warmly received in 2010.

Under Bautista, the PCGG had strived to clean up its public image, with officials looking into past misdeeds and mismanagement.