Jamby to shut down PCGG if elected president

A presidential body tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family will be shuttered if independent presidential candidate Senator Ana Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal wins the May elections. The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has “outlived its usefulness," Madrigal said during a presidential forum held at the Integrity and Human Rights Conference in Makati City on Tuesday. "I will close it...[It] has metamorphosed into a darker agency," she added, citing a move by senators who threatened to give a one peso allotment to the agency in an earlier budget hearing. “We don't know what these people are doing." Madrigal was one of three presidential candidates who attended the forum, including Liberal Party presidential candidate Senator Benigno Simeon “Noynoy" Aquino III and and Ang Kapatiran Party’s Olongapo City Councilor JC de los Reyes. The PCGG was the very first agency created by the late president Corazon Aquino when she assumed power. Its first commissioner is former senator Jovito Salonga, a stalwart of the Liberal Party. In 2008, the PCGG was embroiled in a controversy when its chair, Camilo Sabio, was accused of incurring about $1 million in travel expenses. While it was headed by Haydee Yorac in 2005, the PCGG was unable to prevent San Miguel Corp. (SMC) from issuing additional shares for its stockholders, diluting coconut farmers' stake in the company. Twenty-seven percent of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) shares have been sequestered by the Philippine government. A levy collected in the 1970s from coconut farmers was used to pay for the stake. The Sandiganbayan, the Philippines’ anti-graft court, has already declared that ownership of SMC’s 27 percent stake is public. Reportedly Asia’s largest food and beverage company, San Miguel is currently headed by Marcos associate Eduardo “Danding" Cojuangco Jr. During the forum, Aquino echoed Madrigal's sentiment, saying that “at some point in time, it (PCGG) was useful." In the meantime, Delos Reyes said he wanted to go after the Marcos wealth and even supposed ill-gotten wealth in succeeding administrations. "We have to be wholistic and integral in pursuing graft and corruption cases," said Delos Reyes. The aspirants likewise tackled measures they implement take to assure a corrupt-free government. Madrigal vowed to go after the "big fish like [President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Senator Manuel Villar Jr.]" by strengthening checks-and-balances institutions like the Office of the Ombudsman and the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. De los Reyes said he wanted closed-circuit television or CCTV cameras installed on government offices to curtail possible corruption among employees. He likewise called for the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill, which gives the public easier access to government documents. Aquino, for his part, assailed the "utang na loob" or debt of gratitude practice among government officials in the history of Philippine politics. He said that his party, the Liberal Party, may be among the oldest and traditional parties "but it is the most progressive party.' During the same event, all three vowed to open their bank records if they become president. Aquino said he was willing to undertake the move “if there is a question on my integrity," he said. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV