THE AKBAYAN political party on Monday rejected a bill that seeks to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
In a statement, the group said abolishing the PCGG is an attempt to cleanse the image of the Marcos family from being held accountable for plundering billions of pesos.
“Abolishing the PCGG even before it successfully recovers all the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth absolves the family from any accountability, whitewashes our nation’s history and abandons justice,” Akbayan Executive leader Percival V. Cendaña said.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido M. Abante, Jr. has filed a bill that will abolish the agency and transfer its powers to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
“The commission was established because our laws and our history recognized that the Marcoses plundered the nation and robbed our people of decades of economic development,” Mr. Cendaña said.
“The filing of a bill is the sole mandate of the Legislature as part of the lawmaking process,” Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in a Viber message. “We refrain from commenting on an act that is the exclusive power of a co-equal branch.”
At a House of Representatives hearing last week, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez and Cavite Rep. Elpidio F. Barza, Jr. said the PCGG had “outlived its usefulness,” adding that agencies such as the DoJ and Office of the Ombudsman could take over pending ill-gotten wealth cases.
A popular street uprising toppled the late dictator’s regime in February 1986, forcing him and his family to flee into exile in the United States.
That same year, the late Corazon C. Aquino created the PCGG to go after the ill-gotten assets of the former president, his family and cronies. The elder Marcos is the father of Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. — John Victor D. Ordoñez