Let PCGG handle Arroyo cases, Aquino advised

(Updated 2:35 p.m.) The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) can pick up where the Truth Commission left off and investigate the alleged corruption cases of the Arroyo administration, according to a presidential adviser who submitted this recommendation to President Aquino Monday morning. Magdangal Elma, the presidential assistant for special concerns, made the proposal in a memorandum to Aquino after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional Executive Order No. 1, which called for the creation of the Truth Commission. "It is the recommendation of Justice Elma that PNoy now reverts the PCGG, which is presently under the Department of Justice, to the Office of the President proper. Thereafter, PNoy to direct the PCGG to conduct the investigation of the graft and corruption cases covered in EO No. 1, series of 2010 and order the Philippine Truth Commission to turn over the cases it had already investigated to the PCGG for appropriate action," said a statement from Elma’s office. Elma was a former PCGG chairman who served during the administration of Joseph Estrada. He was also a lawyer in Malacañang when President Aquino's late mother, Cory Aquino, was president. The latter created the PCGG through her first executive order issued Feb. 28, 1986. The PCGG is currently headed by lawyer Juan Andres “Andy" Bautista, who took his oath a few months ago. The PCGG was primarily tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, his family and associates. But under Section 2b of Mrs. Aquino’s EO No. 1, it was also empowered to assist the president in "the investigation of such cases of graft and corruption as the president may assign to the Commission from time to time," Elma wrote. Elma, also a former Court of Appeals associate justice, pointed out that Mrs. Aquino’s EO No. 1 creating the PCGG is a law because she was exercising legislative powers back then as the 1987 Constitution had not yet been drafted at the time. The PCGG's charter and functions have also been upheld in several Supreme Court decisions, said Elma, citing the case of Virata vs. Sandiganbayan that said the commission’s charter "does not violate the equal protection clause and is not a bill of attainder of or ex post facto law." Since its creation in 1986, the PCGG has yet to retrieve all the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses. As of June this year, the PCGG has identified P282.37 billion ($6.98 billion) of their purported ill-gotten wealth. According to an Associated Press report, about P86.5 billion ($1.84 billion) of the amount have been recovered and remitted to the national treasury. The report said some P175 billion ($3.78 billion) in assets are under litigation and P19 billion ($410 million) in property and jewelry have still to be sold. Aside from that, $35 million dollars, excluding interest, are still held by Merrill Lynch in the United States and $25 million, plus interest, in an account in Singapore. President Noynoy Aquino’s EO No. 1 was struck down for violating the equal protection clause of the 1987 Constitution because its mandate was to investigate corruption cases solely in the Arroyo administration. Prior to Elma’s proposal, Aquino’s legal team headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo de Mesa were considering filing a motion for reconsideration or amending Aquino’s EO No. 1. Elma said that if the Supreme Court later reconsiders its decision or if EO No. 1 is revised, Aquino “has the discretion and the authority" to let the Truth Commission handle the cases that, if Aquino follows his advice, had been turned over to the PCGG. "However, Justice Elma points out that the PCGG has more extensive powers to investigate, file and/or prosecute graft and corruption cases under EO No.1 series of 1986 than the Philippine Truth Commission under EO No. 1 series of 2010, and that the PCGG’s powers had been recognized and/or settled in a number of cases decided by the Supreme Court," the statement from Elma’s office read. Elma is not new to dispensing legal advice to presidents, having served as deputy executive secretary, acting executive secretary, and presidential assistant on legal and judicial affairs during the administration of Mrs. Aquino. Aside from serving as PCGG chairman, he also served as chief presidential legal counsel to Estrada. - KBK/RSJ/HS, GMANews.TV