PCGG: Why abolish agency with ‘exemplary’ cost to recovery ratio?

The Presidential Commission on Good Government on Thursday defended its continued existence after more than 30 years by showing on Facebook how much in ill-gotten wealth it has recovered despite its relatively meager budget.

The agency tasked to run after the ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos presented the figures over the last five years.

According to its records, the PCGG recovered in P481.95 million with a budget of P104 million in 2016.

But its brightest year for past half a decade was 2012 when it took back P57.10 billion from the Marcoses with a budget of only P93 million.

It said it was surprised that its function in the government was questioned, a day after Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that abolishing the PCGG was being considered.

"Aside from the fact that it was awarded as the best DOJ performing agency for three  straight years, what other government agency can effectively raise non-tax revenues similar to the numbers (shown)?" the PCGG said.

"Why is there a question on its budget and relevance when PCGG's cost to recovery ratio is exemplary as shown by these numbers? Of all agencies? Figures do not lie," the post read.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella clarified that abolishing PCGG was not because of any political reasons.

He said the Duterte administration was only after right-sizing the government.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Wednesday proposed the abolition of the PCGG as President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his desire to trim redundancies in the bureaucracy during his State of the Nation Address.

"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.

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. —NB, GMA News