With the recent decision of the Sandiganbayan Special Division to dismiss a civil case to retrieve properties from the Marcoses, a lawmaker questioned the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) over its inability to present sufficient evidence on the family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.
Through a statement, Akbayan Partylist Rep. Dadah Kiram Ismula stressed that the primary mandate of the PCGG was to ensure that any resources that were stolen from public funds be retrieved.
The commission was first established just days after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution through an executive order from former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, primarily to recover any and all assets that were accumulated by former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr in his over 20 years in the executive seat.
Since then, the PCGG has been active in scouring through the late dictator’s properties and has reportedly recovered more than P170 billion from the trillions that were estimated to have been taken.
In the most recent case at the anti-graft court, the anti-corruption agency filed a petition to secure property forfeitures of the Marcos family that were supposedly not covered in previous cases that had similar pending proceedings.
Based on the resolution dated 2 June, the total amount that was already retrieved through partial judgments on forfeitures was roughly around $678 million with cases stemming between 2003 to 2019.
The case was subsequently dismissed, however, as the PCGG manifested that it would no longer be presenting evidence concerning the remaining properties not listed given that other assets were recovered through civil suits.
For her part, Ismula said that the failure to push the case was unwarranted as not all ill-gotten wealth was successfully sourced and returned to the public.
“We ask the PCGG: why were the remaining claims not pushed? What is the status of the remaining evidence and has the PCGG done everything to pursue the Marcoses’ remaining ill-gotten wealth?” she posited.
“If the PCGG fails its mandate, it only hands its detractors the ammunition to abolish it, which would be a grave injustice to the victims of Martial Law,” she added.
The lawmaker stressed that the commission should not be influenced by the current administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as even the executive has the legal responsibility to reclaim every amount that was stolen.
She also stated that the Sandiganbayan’s decision to ultimately dismiss the case does not in any way erase the fact that the Marcoses had amassed billions if not trillions of pesos through unlawful means.
“The Marcoses have plundered the nation’s coffers, got wealthy from ill-gotten wealth, and these were recovered by the people through various cases,” she said.
