EDITORIAL - Outliving its usefulness

The Senate may relent and allocate some funds for the continued operation of the Presidential Commission on Good Government. But with the chamber slashing to zero the PCGG’s proposed budget for this year, the administration should start considering the long overdue phase-out of the commission, leaving sequestration cases to the courts.

It’s been 20 years since the fall of Ferdinand Marcos. By this time, the PCGG has done everything it can to recover hidden wealth. Its latest efforts to forge a compromise deal with Marcos’ heirs is a good indication that the PCGG has given up on litigation and sleuthing especially in foreign shores to find more ill-gotten wealth.

The government has managed to recover some of the Marcoses’ assets. Victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime are claiming a part of that wealth, but they will need to push for an amendment of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law if they want this to happen. In recent years the human rights victims seem to have done a better job of finding hidden wealth around the world, racking up victories in US courts. Many of the victims have expressed outrage that the PCGG wants to work out a settlement with the Marcoses. The move, the victims point out, will send the message that crime pays.

The Constitution says the authority to issue sequestration or freeze orders in connection with efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth during the Marcos regime would remain in effect for no more than 18 months after the ratification of the Charter. That was in 1987. The Constitution does say that "in the national interest, as certified by the President," Congress may extend the period. For a number of the sequestered companies, the extension has become indefinite.

Board seats in sequestered companies have become sinecures, often dispensed as political favors by those in power. If the PCGG’s main preoccupation these days is forging a compromise agreement with the Marcoses, it has outlived its usefulness.