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'Goodbye recovery': PCGG abolition would mean end to Marcos wealth hunt, says group

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<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Then President Ferdinand Marcos (center) poses with members of his family on January 15, 1986, namely: his wife Imelda; eldest daughter Imee and her husband at the time, Tomas Manotoc (right); youngest daughter Irene and her husband Greggy Araneta (left); son Bongbong (behind Marcos); and Marcos" grandchildren="" Luis="" his="" Alfonso="" and="" Borgy="" carried="" by="" Ferdinand="" adopted="" Aimee.="" Malacañang="" handout="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/09/21/19860115-marcos-family-ho-afp-1.jpg"/><figcaption>Then President Ferdinand Marcos (center) poses with members of his family on January 15, 1986, namely: his wife Imelda; eldest daughter Imee and her husband at the time, Tomas Manotoc (right); youngest daughter Irene and her husband Greggy Araneta (left); son Bongbong (behind Marcos); and Marcos&#x27; grandchildren Luis (on his lap), Alfonso (Irene&#x27;s lap) and Borgy (left), carried by Ferdinand and Imelda&#x27;s adopted daughter, Aimee.<em> Malacañang handout/AFP</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>A move to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government could mean an end to efforts to recover billions of pesos of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses, the Movement Against Disinformation said Friday. </p><p>&quot;Goodbye recovery efforts...You are going to lose all the cases pending because the specialists, the lawyers who worked on this will all be gone,&quot; Atty. Tony La Vina, president of the movement, said in an interview with ANC&#x27;s Rundown. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/31/22/pcgg-would-be-gone-if-marcos-wins-says-ex-chairman">Ex chairman expects PCGG to be gone if Marcos becomes president</a></li></ul><p>The late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr, his wife Imelda, and their cronies are estimated to have stolen as much as $10 billion or more than P500 billion, from state coffers during his 20-year rule, based on the World Bank-United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Stolen Asset Recovery report.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/06/20/pcgg-yet-to-recover-almost-p100-billion-of-marcos-ill-gotten-wealth-lawmaker">PCGG yet to recover almost P100 billion of Marcos&#x27; ill-gotten wealth — lawmaker</a></li></ul><p>PCGG chair John Agbayani earlier said it will take about seven years to resolve all pending ill-gotten wealth cases it is handling against the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.</p><p>He said there are still 87 pending cases against the Marcoses, with a combined worth of P125 billion. By Agbayani&#x27;s estimates, half of the P125 billion may be recovered.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe __idm_id__="2048001" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1945243" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><p>In the interview, La La Vina warned that the abolition of the PCGG is possible after Marcos scion, Ferdinand &quot;Bongbong&quot; Marcos Jnr, was elected president. </p><p>&quot;It looks like it&#x27;s possible precisely because the President now is Marcos Junior and unfortunately many in the House and the Senate, there is a supermajority, of the administration...they might feel even without any pressure, they might feel they need to do this for the President and his family which is a mistake,&quot; he said. </p><p>&quot;There will be a perception that if the cases do not progress in the DOJ and the Ombudsman it is because the President himself is the one who prevented it from progressing.&quot; </p><p>La Vina said the Supreme Court upheld the executive order creating the PCGG precisely because of the massive scale of corruption during the Marcos dictatorship. </p><p>&quot;It was a unique moment, it was a unique situation, it was massive plunder by corruption by Ferdinand Marcos Sr who was president for more than a decade. The same thing cannot be said of the corruption with the PDAF scandal and the other scandals we have seen in the last 20 years,&quot; he said. </p><p>However, he also pointed out that he is opposed to keeping the PCGG up to 50 years after the 1986 EDSA Revolution. </p><p>&quot;PCGG lifetime should not extend 50 years after EDSA...We can say it is time to wind up the affairs - it can be 5 years or 10 years but there must be a clear closure of the work that is empirically based on what we have now. Not arbitrary because I think it is arbitrary to close it down now,&quot; he said. </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2194931" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

A move to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government could mean an end to efforts to recover billions of pesos of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses, the Movement Against Disinformation said Friday. 