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SolGen told: PCGG not irrelevant

May 31, 2017 | 8:22am

The Presidential Commission on Good Government was created in 1986 to go after the ill-gotten wealth during the Marcos regime. Philstar.com/File photo

MANILA, Philippines — The infighting within Duterte administration continues, this time between the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).

In an eight-page position paper submitted to Congress, the PCGG led by its chairman Reynold Munsayac disputed the call of the OSG for the commission to be abolished for allegedly being irrelevant.

“There is no basis for the OSG’s insistence that the PCGG has rendered itself irrelevant, and that the consolidation of the PCGG’s function with the OSG will promote government efficiency and enhance government efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth and prosecute cases,” the statement read.

The agency, created in 1986 to go after the ill-gotten wealth during the Marcos regime, is opposing the OSG statement supporting legislative bills at the House of Representatives that would abolish PCGG.

The bills seek to consolidate the functions of the PCGG and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) with the mandate of the OSG.

The commission noted that PCGG contributes an average of P400 million in the last five years to the government coffers, way above its budget of P110 million.

Since its creation, it noted that the commission has already remitted P170 billion to the Bureau of Treasury. It has also turned over P70 billion for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and P10 billion as payment to victims of human rights abuses during the Marcos regime.

The PCGG said its abolition will be more expensive for the government, noting that the OSG is asking for an additional P701 million in its budget to absorb the two agencies.

The combined proposed budget of the PCGG and the OGCC for next year is only P298 million.

PCGG also denied that there are overlapping of functions, saying they are not merely acting as lawyers of the government in the cases against the Marcoses but also conduct investigation and management of seized assets.

“Lawyering is merely incidental to the peculiar functions of the PCGG,” it added, also noting that there may be conflict of interest as some of the cases handled by the agency are against other government agencies lawyered by the OSG.

It added that the bills that seek to abolish the PCGG and OGCC should defer to the proposed legislation on the rightsizing of the government.

The Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over PCGG and the OGCC, also opposed the proposal to let the OSG absorb their functions.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II also bucked the proposal’s provision that will make the OSG an autonomous agency attached to the Office of the President.

“It is our view that the OSG should continue to be an agency attached to the DOJ, mainly because the powers and functions of the OSG are devolved from this department’s power as the principal law agency of the government and as legal counsel and representative thereof,” he said.