About five years ago I got to work with the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the body assembled by the Aquino government to recover the ill-gotten wealth amassed by former President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies, and to prosecute those responsible for the wanton plunder that had ravaged the national treasury for nearly two decades. One of my professors in law school, Victoria Avena, just happened to be a commissioner at the time.
It was a good time to be involved with the Commission, back then. The late Haydee Yorac was in charge, and was making it a point to staff her legal team with damned good lawyers, something that had, for the most part, been sorely missing from the PCGG's ranks since its inception in 1986. She wasn't about to take any shit from anybody, and was all about kicking ass and taking names. The famous Coco Levy decision that the Supreme Court handed down in December of 2001, which effectively took hundreds of millions out of the hands of former crony Danding Cojuangco was a victory to remember for the Commission and one hell of a morale booster.
I left the Commission late the next year, but nonetheless continued to follow its progress, especially when it experienced at least one more legal triumph at the Supreme Court.
And then, maybe about two years later, things started going to hell.
It started when Yorac left. I'm fairly sure it was the corruption she got fed up with, the fact that the Arroyo administration, or elements thereof, at least, were siphoning off the funds and resources it had taken gallons of blood and sweat to win back...for the people. It could also have been the fact that even then, the Arroyo government was already trying to cut deals with the Marcoses in exchange for their support. It doesn't really take a genius to figure out that while Yorac remained committed to doing her job, her bosses in the Palace had a different agenda, which was why she simply up and left.
Enter this new team led by Abcede. There's not much to describe, really. Suffice it to say that he wants to cut a deal with the Marcoses, and let them go absolutely scot-free, his rationale being that the government has already spent too much money chasing after them and their money. Holy shit.
First of all, what happened to the Marcoses' accountability? Their wanton rape of Filipino dignity, not to mention the economy? Pepole who are bitching about what a power-hungry harridan GMA is now have been, as I understand it, drawing a lot of flawed parallels between her and Marcos. She's bad, sure, especially as we can see from what she's trying to pull now, but I don't think we'll ever see anyone as bad as Marcos was. Strike this deal and all is forgiven and forgotten. The cronies and everyone else responsible walks off, free to enjoy their millions and live like kings while the country they butt-fucked to amass their money continues to languish in complete and utter squalor.
Second, even assuming the Marcoses agree to turn over funds to the goverment, they are hardly likely to surrender much more than the tiniest fraction of their amassed fortune. Consider that this amounted to billions back in the eighties, multiplied by all the investments they probably made with them taking inflation and interest into account. Imelda, insane though she may seem, probably wasn't kidding when she said that it amounts to trillions by now. Trillions that belong to the Filipino people who suffered and died under Marcos' tyrannical megalomania. If the Marcoses gave the government one trillion pesos, it doesn't mean a thing if they kept three or four for themselves.
Third, it is utterly asinine to complaint about the PCGG's lack of success over the last several years. Under Yorac's watch, so much was achieved because she and the lawyers under her placed emphasis on competence and integrity, concepts that seem foreign to the Commission for the rest of its existence thereafter, and for much of its existence before. The PCGG lost its cases and arguments because its lawyers were idiots and because the Sandiganbayan justices were crooked or stupid. However, by rectifying the former, they were able to overcome some of the difficulties posed by the latter.
I agree with certain sectors that say it is time to bring an end to the PCGG. Cut off its budget, its lifeline, let it die in the sun like a fish washed up on the shore. Yorac, one of the best things that ever happened to the PCGG, is already in her grave. It would be sad if this continuous display of idiocy put PCGG founder Jovito Salonga in his grave, too.
It was once a nice place to work...but that time is long past. Obviously, it's no longer interested in holding the past dictator and his minions liable for what they've done, so let the task fall into more honest, competent, and determined hands.
And as far as I'm concerned, this should be one of the nails in the coffin of Arroyo's government. For the longest time I have actually been defending the administration against the opposition (whom I still think are scum), but now she's lost at least one, probably more supporters with her blatant, unabashed efforts to cut a deal with those from whose depradations the country has yet to fully recover.
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