MANILA — The Presidential Commission on Good Government’s (PCGG) chief thinks 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.

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This was revealed by PCGG chair John Agbayani during a hearing of the House Justice Committee on Wednesday.

“After staying there for a continuous period of almost five years, when do you expect that the job of the PCGG will be finished?” Cavite 4th District Rep. Elipdio Barzaga asked.

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“My personal estimate is seven years. Seven years to finally resolve all the pending cases,” Agbayani replied.

Earlier in the hearing, Agbayani told the panel that there are still 87 pending cases, with a combined worth of P125 billion.

“Iyang mga cases na 'yan, pending. 'Di lahat panalo. May talo rin. Pero all of these cases with judgments were already appealed to the Supreme Court," he said.

Of the 87, around 40 are pending before the Sandiganbayan.

By Agbayani's estimates, half of the P125 billion may be recovered.

He said they are also recovering more from the US.

“We have bright prospects of more recoveries in the coming years. Meron po tayong $70 million sa New York. We are working on final judgment."

Meantime, the government may earn about P50 billion from the sale of recovered assets.

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INTERFERENCE?

Agbayani believes President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. will leave the PCGG alone.

“With the present Marcos leadership, how would that affect our recovery efforts, well, let's just apply the principle of regularity in the functionings of our government agencies. I don’t believe that the present leadership will interfere in the judicial processes," he said.

"For final judgments, wala na ho sila magagagawa doon. Final na yun.”

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“For pending cases, we just expect that the president will just recognize the doctrine of separation of powers in the government and he will not waste the trust and confidence the trust bestowed upon him by 30 million voters by doing something which is not, which is offensive to morals and good conduct," Agbayani added.

Some lawmakers had been floating the idea of abolishing the PCGG, while the Department of Justice wants to expand its mandate to the recovery of wealth from other cases instead of just the Marcos family's.

• Remulla wants PCGG to go beyond Marcoses ill-gotten wealth

In a separate statement, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro rejected the proposal to abolish the PCGG and said that it should instead be revitalized and strengthened.

"Yes the PCGG has its faults. But it was still able to recover P265 billion in Marcos ill-gotten wealth, both cash and other assets. Now, it still has to go after about a trillion worth more," said the teacher solon.

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