Senators oppose PCGG abolition

THE Senate minority bloc will oppose any measure to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) since it claimed that it could be a part of a ploy to revise history about the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Antonio Trillanes 4th, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino, and Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday said there is no need to abolish the PCGG.

Voting 165-7, the House of Representatives on Tuesday abolished the PCGG. There are six pending measures in the Senate “strengthening” the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) by amending its Charter.

The Senate Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises, chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon, had finished conducting public hearings on measures abolishing the PCGG filed by Senators Panfilo Lacson, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Loren Legarda, Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Francis Escudero, and Trillanes.

“I will oppose it. I am taking the position that there will be difficulties if we abolish PCGG and OGCC (Office of the Government Corporate Counsel) but I want to see how the report comes out,” Drilon said in an interview.

“There’s definitely no need to abolish the PCGG. We will not allow that measure to prosper here in the Senate because if we abolish PCGG it is as if we also abolish historical accountability and absolve the Marcoses of plunder,” Hontiveros said.

“Unless they can show that the functions of the PCGG can be effectively performed by other agency, we should maintain the PCGG in my view. But I am willing to listen to the debate,”Drilon said.

Gordon also rejected the plan to abolish the PCGG.

“At the moment I don’t think you should abolish it. That is my disposition because you need a special team to go after these people. That’s the quickest way to forget it,”he said.

Aquino said that if the Duterte government is serious in eradicating corruption, “it should work to strengthen the PCGG, rather than move to abolish it.”

He said that in its 30 years of existence, the PCGG has recovered $3.6 billion or P170 billion.