PCGG building sold for P800 million – COA

MANILA, Philippines — A building in Mandaluyong City, where the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) had its offices, was sold for P800 million in May 2022, the Commission on Audit (COA)’s latest report showed.

Based on the “Notes to Financial Statements” contained in the COA’s annual audit report on PCGG for 2022, a property located at “No. 82 EDSA, Mandaluyong City” was “disposed through public bidding in May 2022.”

No. 82 EDSA, Mandaluyong City is the exact same address of the IRC Building where the PCGG was holding office.

Based on the audit report, the disposed property was listed in the PCGG’s book under “Abandoned/Surrendered Property Assets” as part of the recovered properties from Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth.

“In 2022, the said property was disposed thru public bidding and the proceeds amounting to P800,000,000.00 was remitted to Bureau of Treasury – Trust account under Fund 184,” the audit report read.

The winner of the bidding or buyer of the property was not identified in the report.

The COA said the property underwent valuation by two independent appraisers in January 2022: the Asian Appraisal Co. Inc. valued the property at P856.99 million, while Cal-Fil Appraisal and Management Inc. pegged it at P721.5 million.

At the time, the property was being used by the PCGG for its operations, the COA noted.

In an “invitation to bid” document, posted on the PCGG’s Facebook page on May 2, 2022 the property, located at “82 EDSA, IRC Building, Mandaluyong City,” with a total area of 2,886 square meters, was declared up “for sale” at a floor price of P789.245 million.

Based on the PCGG’s invitation to bid document, a pre-bidding conference was scheduled on May 19, 2022 while the formal opening of bids was supposed to be done on May 26, 2022.

Created in 1986, the PCGG was primarily tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth amassed by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his family and cronies during his martial law regime.

As the audit report showed, the sale of the PCGG’s office building took place in May 2022, the month when Marcos Sr.’s son and namesake was elected as the country’s 17th president.

It was not identified in the audit report where the PCGG will be holding office.

A bill seeking the abolition of PCGG has been pending in the House of Representatives since September last year.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who filed the bill, said that the agency “has become a big embarrassment to the government” over its failure to recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth 36 years after it was created.