PCGG: No new cases against the Marcoses expected over ill-gotten wealth

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said Wednesday that no further cases involving ill-gotten wealth will be filed against the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The PCGG is the government agency tasked with recovering the ill-gotten wealth attributed to the Marcos family and their associates.

"Personally, we do not foresee any new cases to be filed against the Marcoses," PCGG Chairman John Agbayani told lawmakers during the House justice committee organizational meeting.

"For the last 15 to 20 years, there [has been] no [new] evidence surfacing in order to prove the existence of ill-gotten wealth against the Marcos [family] and their cronies. At this time, there is no evidence available if we intend to prosecute new persons to be involved in the ill-gotten [wealth cases] related to the Marcoses," he said.

Agbayani made the statement after Cavite Fourth District Representative Elpidio Barzaga Jr., a lawyer, asked the PCGG if those connected to the ill-gotten wealth were still subject to criminal prosecution 36 years after the agency was created.

"Based on your statement, we expect that there will be no more cases to be filed considering that they do not know what cases to be filed and considering further that there is no more evidence," the lawmaker replied.

Likewise, Agbayani said there are 87 pending ill-gotten wealth and forfeiture cases against the Marcos family and their cronies amounting to P125 billion.

"The 87 cases are handled by the Office of the Solicitor General, which is the PCGG's statutory counsel," he said.

Agbayani also announced that the PCGG has been able to recover P265 billion of the ill-gotten wealth as of December 2021, of which P175 billion is in cash and P90 billion is in the form of assets.

PCGG's existence

Meanwhile, several lawmakers, including Barzaga and Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro and Jonathan Flores of Bukidnon, asked why the PCGG should still exist, given that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son and namesake of the former leader, has already pushed for rightsizing the bureaucracy.

"Whatever that has not been recovered could certainly be given to an office in the Department of Justice. What I’m saying is that let us be able to look, especially at this time, where we are limited with our resources, that we cannot be continuing to spend for many many agencies of our government," Rodriguez said.

He urged the commissioners "to take a second look at how the PCGG would be able to wind up its affairs."

"It could also mean for 36 years, if we are not yet finished with that particular mandate of recovery, then it has failed. Because how can an agency [tasked] to recover the Marcos wealth and its cronies still be continuing 36 years down the line?" he added.

Agbayani countered by citing the PCGG's performance.

"The PCGG has not lost its relevance. The PCGG is a consistent non-revenue earning contributor to the Bureau of Treasury of P600 million per annum on an average budget of P150 million," Agbayani said.

"We just don't file ill-gotten wealth cases. We also manage these recovered assets. In fact, in 2022, we have already [remitted] P850 million to the Treasury so far, which already exceeded our major final output target," he added.

Agbayani said that the PCGG currently has 11 special legal counsels and its legal department has six lawyers.

Kabataan party-list Representative Raoul Manuel said the PCGG's estimate of $5 billion to $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth, if all recovered, could be used to fund government services.

"I am not naive but nothing is impossible if we work together on this, lalo na ganito kalaki ang amount na kailangang i-recover," he said.

(I am not naive, but nothing is impossible if we work together on this, especially with such a huge amount to recover.)

"Hindi ito thousands, millions of pesos. These are billions na maaaring magamit para sa serbisyo para sa mamamayan. Kaya while nasimulan na ng PCGG yung pagrecover at may naireport na data kanina, I believe na mayroon pang pwedeng maidagdag, maibalik sa kaban ng ating bayan," Manuel added.

(These are not thousands or millions of pesos. These are billions of pesos that could be used to fund services to our people. While the PCGG has started the recovery of the ill-gotten wealth, I believe we can still recover more and have it returned to state coffers.) —VBL, GMA News