Marcos names retired CA justice as PCGG chief

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has named a retired associate justice of the appellate court as chief of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their close associates.

Melchor Sadang, who served as Court of Appeals (CA) magistrate from 2011 to 2017, has been appointed PCGG chairman, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) announced in a Facebook post yesterday.

Last year, Sadang was included in a five-person committee that reviewed the records of police generals and colonels who submitted their courtesy resignation as part of the Marcos administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.

The late president Corazon Aquino – who assumed office in 1986 after the people power revolution that ousted Marcos’ late father and namesake – formed the PCGG through Executive Order 1. Under the order, the PCGG is mandated to assist the president in the “recovery of all ill-gotten wealth accumulated by former president Ferdinand E. Marcos, his immediate family, relatives, subordinates and close associates, whether located in the Philippines or abroad.”

The PCO also announced the appointment of Ethel Valenzuela as commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education; Rose Marie Arenas as member of the board of directors of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office; Dahlialyn Dait-Cawed as director IV of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples; Bienvenido Niles Jr. as member of the Philippine Racing Commission representing the Racehorse Owners Association; Eric Arevalo as agrarian reform director III; Claire Aznar as provincial agrarian reform program officer I; Asis Perez as agriculture undersecretary; Ella Mitra as foreign service officer class I; Grace Baluyan as trade assistant secretary; Raymond Panhon as trade director IV; Nathaniel Arevalo as deputy director general of the Intellectual Property Office; Jason Barlis as chair of the Supreme Court Legal Education Board; Manuel Barrios as regular member of the Supreme Court Legal Education Board representing the Philippine Association of Law Professors; Voltaire San Pedro as regular member of the Supreme Court Legal Education Board representing the Philippine Association of Law Schools; Gregorio Montenegro as member of the Home Development Mutual Fund Board of Trustees representing private employees and Raymond Fel Sajor as labor director III.

Also appointed were Godwin Hernaez as chief of medical professional staff II of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center; Roberto Zozobrado as general manager, chief executive officer and member of the board of trustees of the Philippine Retirement Authority; Jesus Nathaniel Martin Gonzales as transportation undersecretary; Salma Angkaya-Kuhutan, Mohamad Dimaporo, Analiza Flores, Catherine Magana, Ma. Cristina Malab and Ronaldo Tepora as members of the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines; Eduardo Saguil as member of the board of trustees of the Development Bank of the Philippines; Martin Yasay as Insurance Commission deputy commissioner and Eva Arcos as member of the Social Security Commission representing the workers’ group.