Turning away evil an ordeal
 |
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) presents a quandary for every new administration. The agency’s obsolescence is so palpable that many has sought its abolition, which is also among the pledge that helped put Noynoy, of his “straight path” crusade, in Malacañang.
Then comes the day Noynoy is president and suddenly the PCGG abolition is under review again.
Lately, the Palace has issued an executive order directing the PCGG to order its nominees, who are presumably holdovers from the previous administration, to vacate their positions among sequestered firms. They will be replaced by new appointees, all allies of Noynoy.
That is what is usually called political patronage as well the spoils from the victor distributed as rewards to his allies.
PCGG’s new chairman Andy Bautista has indicated that the winding down of the agency’s operations will take, suddenly, two years.
A bill authored by former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel was filed in the Senate as far back as 2006 seeking to abolish the PCGG saying that it had outlived its functions.
The bill already provided detailed steps for the agency’s abolition, including the transfer of its investigation and prosecution functions to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Ombudsman of the Philippines and the management and disposition of sequestered assets to the Privatization Office of the Department of Finance.
To take two years for dissolving an agency, the process for which is already in place seems to be suspiciously too long.
The PCGG riddle involves about 50 sequestered companies spanning telecommunications, broadcast and industrial production that presents a tempting proposition for those in power to keep for a while or for their whole term, if possible.
In the companies are more than 220 nominee slots that would be rich picking as rewards Noynoy can dispense to his allies and other groups in his yellow circle.
Executive Order 42 gave the PCGG authority to select up to two seats in the 50 or so sequestered companies.
The EO reasoned that the replacement of the nominees is needed to preserve the sequestered assets and the interest of the government in the held firms. With the way past PCGG officials had dissipated the assets it would be a wonder what kind of preservation Noynoy’s new nominees will introduce in the sequestered firms, probably in the same way the past PCGG appointees “preserved” these firms.
Under the executive order, the PCGG will have until the end of the year to appoint replacements among the sequestered companies.
The PCGG itself in a report prepared for the Truth Commission which was Noynoy’s version of the especially-built body that was created by his mother, former President Cory Aquino, the PCGG started a scandalously long list of instances of abuses among PCGG officials.
The PCGG, even at its birthing, was already infused with corruption, and the same went for the Cory yellows who were appointed to take over the running of the sequestered firms, some of which, to this day, remain sequestered as the presidential appointees continue to run them down.
Unliquidated cash advances alone for former PCGG chairman Camilo Sabio, for instance, run to P2 million. Also found were $2 million worth of unliquidated travel expenses.
It was clear for Aquino and his allies that the PCGG’s existence is equated to dissipation of assets and the longer it exists, the more the government loses, not to even mention the real owners of these sequestered firms that have been plundered by government appointees, only to realize after two decades that these were never ill-gotten.
Thus, there must be something seriously wrong when Noynoy declared that it should exist for two years more.
Throwing away evil amid the temptations accompanying it surely would take a lot of will.
0 comments:
Post a Comment