Tuesday, October 23, 2007

That PCGG

About a century ago, I wrote --

In my next posts, I will most likely deal with the following things, listed in no particular order:

1. The present PCGG and why Imelda Marcos likes loves them.
2. The Philippine military and why some of the worst human rights violators in the AFP also have the most atrocious English
3. Where I will be working soon. Or maybe now, depending on when I finally get to write the next post."

And so.

Let's start with 1 first.

1. Imelda now says she doesn't want a settlement with the PCGG. So, who wanted a settlement with Imelda? The PCGG? Or just Commissioner Ric Abcede? PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio has recently been the subject of unflattering news reports involving P10 Million in government mondey that should have been remitted to the Treasury. Sabio admits to having received the money from two real estate companies that Marcos crony J.Y. Campos 'surrendered' (that's the term the PCGG uses for assets that are no longer sequestered but were ceded to the Government by admitted Marcos cronies), namely Mid-Pasig Land Corporation (MPLC) and Independent Realty Corporation (IRC).

(Both MPLC and IRC, by the way, have their common and relatively modest office on the ground floor of the same building along EDSA where the PCGG is. In fact, IRC used to own the building, until the (Yorac-led) PCGG completed the transfer of its title to the Republic.)

Sabio says he can defend his receipt of the P10 Million "in Plaza Miranda." Now, I don't know how many Filipinos, on one hand, still remember what that means and how many Filipinos who heard what Sabio said thought it odd, if not reckless, for a somewhat frail PCGG Chairman to be running around Plaza Miranda carrying P10 Million in his pockets, while trying to convince the multitudes in Quiapo that he accepted the P10 Million innocently. Maybe he did and I'm inclined to think of Mil Sabio as being naive enough to think that. The problem is that the money -- apparently booked in the corporations' ledgers as part of IRC/MPLC's operating income -- should have gone to the Treasury (and, according to Republic Act 6657, Section 33(b), to be spent specifically for agrarian reform). I hope Sabio sorts this out soon, before the present PCGG's credibility sinks lower.

But I digress, although I did want to write about how the PCGG's credibility has probably sunk lower than how it was just before the Yorac-led PCGG came in after the Estrada administration's own series of PCGG disasters. Commissioner Ric Abcede's contribution to the PCGG's sinking (or re-sinking) is so massive, his fellow commissioners could have slept through most of 2006 and 2007 and would still have woken up to find themselves collectively submerged in their sunken ship.

More tomorrow. Or next week. Basta soon.


2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

good you're blogging leon. kanus-a ka balik sa Manila?

5:26 PM  
Blogger mschumey07 said...

Now the Marcos's are getting back what they stole. Erap has just been pardoned and Gloria is still getting away with her crimes. There really is something wrong here and the ones who could answer those questions are us, the people. We should have learned from history.

7:10 PM  

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