The former chairman of the presidential commission tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos has recommended to President Benigno Aquino III to allow the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to investigate the alleged corruption cases of the Arroyo administration instead of the Truth Commission.
Magdangal Elma, the presidential assistant for special concerns, made the proposal to Aquino after the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional Executive Order No. 1, which called for the creation of the Truth Commission.
Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, created the PCGG through her first executive order issued Feb. 28, 1986. Under Section 2b of Mrs. Aquino’s EO No. 1, Elma said the PCGG was also tasked to assist the president in the investigation of such cases of graft and corruption as the president may assign to the Commission from time to time..
Elma further pointed out that the PCGG has more extensive powers to investigate, file and/or prosecute graft and corruption cases, and that the PCGG’s powers had been recognized and/or settled in a number of cases decided by the Supreme Court.
The Truth Commission was declared unconstitutional for violating the equal protection clause of the 1987 Constitution because its mandate was to investigate corruption cases solely in the Arroyo administration. Aquino’s legal team headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo de Mesa were considering filing a motion for reconsideration or amending Aquino’s EO No. 1.
