JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla is looking at the possibility of expanding the jurisdiction of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to cover the seizure of smuggled shipments and confiscation of properties and assets for non-payment of taxes and for being connected to illegal drug trade.
Remulla highlighted the need for a central forfeiture asset office that would not only be focused on the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses or their cronies—its original mandate when created by the Corazon Aquino administration in 1986—but other assets acquired through illegal means.
“PCGG’s first function was really for the sequestration of properties, [it] means taking control of properties. Right now we have no central forfeiture asset office in the country,” Remulla noted.
Part of his proposal is for the PCGG to work hand-in-hand with agencies such as the Bureau of Customs to ensure that the bidding and auction of seized goods are aboveboard and items do not end up in the possession of smugglers.
There had been speculation that some of the items auctioned off at BOC still end up in the possession of smugglers, after paying lower taxes.
Remulla said the creation of another office might address suspicion of irregularities in the seizure of illegally acquired properties and contraband.
“Might as well have the government do it in another office where they [smugglers] cannot penetrate. I suggested it to the President,” Remulla said.
He added that the PCGG could also be tapped for drug cases and when a person’s properties are seized in favor of the government.
“We do not have a disposition body on that matter, so we have to have a central body so that we would know how much is the country really getting from the proceeds of crimes, from what we are forfeiting in favor of the government and of the people,” he said.
At present, the justice secretary said, the discussion on expanding the mandate of the PCGG remains internal or within his team in the DOJ, which is looking for ways to maximize the PCGG.
“I don’t think we need to spend the next hundred years running after the Marcoses, I don’t think it’s going to be that way. Might as well make good of something that is there already, so shift the mandate to something useful for the country, and more urgent,” Remulla explained.
“What we are only saying is that [given] the training of the PCGG in managing assets, we might as well look into it so that the other assets forfeited by the government will have a management system. This will be a good one; it’s the time really for us to look at how we deal with the proceeds of crimes,” he added.