Calida plays down Marcos connection as bill aims to put PCGG under OSG

Solicitor General Jose Calida has allayed concerns brought about by the proposed measure seeking to transfer the task of recovering the ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos to the Office of the Solicitor General. 

Calida was the head of the Alyansang Duterte-Bongbong (AlDuB) that pushed for the tandem of President Rodrigo Duterte and Marcos in the 2016 elections. 

"I am now a government official. 'Yung election before has no more bearing on my duty as a government official so it doesn't matter to me," the solicitor general told reporters on Tuesday night. 

He also said it was the prerogative of Congress to push for the proposal for the OSG to absorb the functions of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG). 

"They (lawmakers) enact the laws. Kami naman we will implement the law," Calida said.  

As of late 2016, the PCGG was dealing with more than 200 pending cases on the estimated $10-billion loot, which includes Swiss accounts, properties and assets, jewelry sets, and artworks.

House Bill 5233 also wants the OSG to have the power to grant immunity from criminal persecution “to any person who provides information or testifies in any investigation” over ill-gotten wealth, including those previously handled by the PCGG.

The bill was filed by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez,  Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and House justice committee chairman Reynaldo Umali. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News