PCGG won’t be abolished yet

MANILA, Philippines - It is not yet time to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) as it still has work to do, Malacañang said yesterday.

It noted the PCGG’s achievements over the years as the agency commemorated its 29th year yesterday.

“I have been following the progress of the PCGG and we can truly say they have a lot of achievements from the time they started their work—at least, particularly for this administration in 2010,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over dzRB.

The PCGG was created 29 years ago by then President Corazon Aquino by virtue of Executive Order Nos. 1 and 2, making it the first official act of the new government – predating the present Constitution. The PCGG was supposed to recover ill-gotten wealth from the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

“Cases have started moving more quickly. (They) have been able to recover more assets arising out of litigations. But I think even the PCGG recognizes that there should be an end to the cases,” Valte said.

She said the PCGG will have to wind up its operations but there is no timeframe yet.

PCGG chairman Andres Bautista said in his STAR column yesterday that “as the commission commemorated its 29th anniversary, it would like to consolidate the gains it had achieved thus far, believing that documenting these gains were essential imperatives to avoid committing mistakes of the past.”