PCGG warned anew over P1 billion unsold Marcos assets

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has again called out the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) over its continued failure to sell more than P1 billion worth of assets recovered by the government from the Marcos family and their cronies, which have been up for disposal since 2015.

In an annual audit report recently uploaded on its website, the COA said that just like in 2017, the PCGG has again failed to sell any of the recovered properties, stocks, jewelry and other assets listed for public bidding based on its privatization plan for 2018.

The COA said the PCGG has in fact been failing to meet its annual privatization plan since 2015 despite the objective to use the proceeds from the assets’ sale in the implementation of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) as provided under Republic Act 6657.

“The privatization plan for calendar years 2015 to 2018 for surrendered assets under the agency’s control was not completely accomplished, thus negating its goals and objectives to augment the budgetary requirement of the CARP,” the report read.

“We noted that there were real estate properties and shares of stocks which were part of the privatization plan since 2015 and yet remained undisposed of as of Dec. 31, 2018,” it added.

The COA said that for the last four years, the PCGG only managed to dispose of one real property – a 1,146-square-meter lot in Wingman Compound in Baguio City sold to a certain Rey Florence Reyes on June 17, 2016 for P20.742 million; and 157,500 shares of stocks of Showa United Food Inc. sold to Greenfield Development Corp. on April 20, 2016 for P50.050 million.

On the other hand, COA’s records showed that a total of P1.081 billion of the recovered ill-gotten assets remain unsold, including the Marcos family’s jewelry set referred to as the Hawaii Collection which is being kept in a vault at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.