COA flags PCGG over unsold properties of Marcos cronies

The Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned the failure of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to sell the ill-gotten properties that were sequestered from cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

In the 2017 audit report, the COA said the expected sale would generate more than P336 million in funds, including revenue from other administered assets of the PCGG, for the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

The properties that were supposed to be sold last year include:

• 26,812 hectares in Bacolod City surrendered by Antonio Martel and Simplicio Palanca after entering a compromise agreement with the government

• 6.4 hectares in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite surrendered by Jose Y. Campos in the name of Independent Realty Corporation

• 5,952 square meters in Naga City recovered from Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation of Roberto Benedicto

• 2,335 sqm in Francisco Evergreen Subdivision in Tagaytay City

• 1,000 sqm in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro recovered from Jolly Bugarin

• two 300-sqm lots in Pangarap Village, Caloocan City from former Marcos aide Alejo Ganut Jr.

• 480 sqm in Kingswood Property, Emerald Court Subdivision, Caloocan City surrendered by Ganut

• 300 sqm in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro from Bugarin

The COA said the PCGG included the properties on a list that would be auctioned off based on the privatization plan submitted to the Department of Justice on April 20, 2017.

The last time the PCGG was able to sell a property was in 2014, during which three ill-gotten assets were sold to a private bidder.

“The audit team noted that during the year there was no public bidding conducted to privatize the assets enumerated. It was also further noted that the management also failed to dispose properties from previous years,” COA said.

PCGG acting chairman Reynold Munsayac told state auditors during an exit conference that the PCGG was “hesitant to privatize the assets due to issuances of Notices of Charge” released in previous years.

The COA issues a notice of charge for properties and assets with valuations that were lower than expected.  

Munsayac noted that COA usually sets higher floor prices compared with the valuations by the Department of Finance and the Privatization Council.

The PCGG will coordinate with state auditors on reappraising the properties before a public auction is held.

Remittances

COA, on the other hand, reported the PCGG remitted P377 million to the Bureau of Treasury in 2017.

The amount included P252 million withdrawn from the Marcos family’s forfeited Swiss bank accounts in 2003, as a result of the cases won by PCGG against the former First Family and their cronies in previous years.

The Philippine National Bank now holds P252 million under the name of the good government commission through Resolution No. 2017-032-032 dated May 22, 2017. The Treasury confirmed having received the amount on July 18 last year.

The PCGG also remitted more than P116 million in dividends from the shares of stock in San Miguel Corporation, according to COA.

None of the funds that were remitted came from the sale of ill-gotten assets, it said. —VDS, GMA News