Marcos appoints Rogelio Quevedo as new PCGG commissioner

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) former government corporate counsel Rogelio Quevedo — an information technology expert who previously questioned the results of the 2016 vice presidential elections. 

The Presidential Communications Office on Thursday announced Quevedo as the new commissioner of a body whose main mandate is to recover the ill-gotten wealth plundered by Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his family. 

Before his appointment, Quevedo was part of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), which served as “a strong foundation to his subsequent appointment as Commissioner of the PCGG,” said Jesus Crispin Remulla, secretary of the Department of Justice, the parent agency of the PCGG.

In 2016, Quevedo called for an independent investigation of the results of the vice presidential elections where Marcos narrowly lost to former Vice President Leni Robredo, flagging what he said were concerning changes to the automated election system during the polls. 

During a Kapihan sa Manila Hotel forum that year, Quevedo and political science professor Antonio Contreras said that Robredo may have benefited from the anomaly caused by the Smartmatic technician who allegedly tweaked the system’s hash code without authorization, according to media reports.

Commissioners of the PCGG not only identify and investigate the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, but are also responsible for initiating court action and other remedies to recover these. In a 2021 report by the Commission on Audit, the body was flagged for its “laxity in the monitoring and recovery efforts” of ill-gotten assets.

During his campaign in 2022, Marcos said the PCGG should broaden its coverage to target the ill-gotten assets of all government officials.

Remulla echoed this call on Tuesday, saying that the body should now become the Department of Justice’s permanent central anti-corruption agency. — Cristina Chi