Budget chief says PCGG no longer needed

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Wednesday proposed to abolish the Presidential Commission for Good Government (PCGG) as the Duterte administration wants to trim redundancies off the bureaucracy.

"I don't think we need a PCGG at this time. Matagal na masyado ang PCGG. There are many agencies, there are many task forces created in the last 30 years. So this gives us the opportunity to once and for all clean up the government," Diokno said in a press briefing in Manila.

President Rodrigo Duterte asked Congress to pass the proposed Rightsizing the National Government Act of 2017, which aims to eliminate redundant and overlapping functions in government, as well as reduce overhead costs and re-channel government resources to core and priority programs and projects.

The bill was introduced by Senator Loren Legarda in September 2016.

A similar bill filed by Davao City 1st District Representative Karlo Alexei Nograles was approved by the House of Representatives on second reading in June.

By late 2016, the PCGG was handling more than 200 pending cases involving mostly ill-gotten wealth supposedly accumulated during the 20-year Marcos regime – including jewelry, artworks, Swiss accounts, properties and assets.

At this point. however, Diokno said abolishing the PCGG is just a suggestion.

Apart from abolishing other government agencies, the Cabinet official said rightsizing measures may include splitting or merging departments.

"One example is we can split the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government). This is possible lang into two: the Department of Local Governments and Department of Homeland Defense. Just like in the US, they have a Department of Homeland Defense," Diokno said.

"Another possibility is we can split DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) into two. One is for natural resources and conservation, one is for the use of natural resources. Kasi conflicted 'yung office na 'yun," he added.

Once the proposed rightsizing bill makes it through Congress, Diokno said it would take two years to study how the measure would affect all concerned agencies.

A committee on rightsizing the executive branch will be created with the executive secretary as chairman, the budget secretary as co-chairman, and the socioeconomic planning secretary, the chairman of the Civil Service Commission, and the head of the Presidential Management Staff as members. The committee will oversee the implementation of rightsizing the government. — VDS/KVD, GMA News