By Charissa Luci-Atienza  The House Committee on Justice has passed a bill seeking to strengthen the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) by increasing its powers and functions, and rationalizing and further professionalizing its organization. Office of the Government Corporate Counsel
(OGCC / MANILA BULLETIN) The House panel, chaired by Leyte Rep.  Vicente Veloso approved seven bills on the proposed "OGCC Charter." It was Deputy Speaker and Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal who moved for the approval of the bills. In his sponsorship speech,  Oaminal said the existing organizational structure and personnel complement of OGCC was formulated way back in 1978 and has not been amended since then despite the increasing work it performed in discharging its mandate. "The strengthening of the OGCC is long overdue," Oaminal pointed out. During the hearing,  Chief Government Counsel Elpidio Vega cited the need for Congress to pass the OGCC Charter. "It is high time that OGCC shall be reorganized and strengthened. For the past 84 years of existence, since we were created in 1935, we started only with seven government corporations and it has ballooned to almost 500 plus and that does not include yet all the water districts in the country. That is why we have to strengthen the OGCC," he told the panel. He said currently, the OGCC acts as the principal and the statutory counsel of more than 720 government-owned or controlled corporations, government instrumentalities exercising corporate powers, government financial institutions and government corporate entities, their subsidiaries and corporate offspring as well as economic zones, state universities and water districts. "As of now, almost 720 plus government corporations are our clients and under our services," Vega said. "For this, we are handling almost 6,000 cases in various courts, aside from administrative cases, filing pleadings and attending hearings for said cases and these legal services would be considered savings for the government corporations," he pointed out. He said because of the OGCC, government corporations do not hire anymore any legal retainers for their cases, for their contract reviews and for the filing of pleadings and attendance of the hearings, including administrative and arbitration cases.  All these could amount to more than a billion pesos in savings every year, Vega said. He said it is about time to rationalize and reorganize the GOCC by increasing the number of its personnel and adjusting the compensation and benefits of its employees. He relayed to the panel that they need additional manpower for legal services. "We are requesting for 24 lawyers and 77 admin staff," he said. Other authors of the bill,  led by Compostela Valley Rep. Ruwel Peter Gonzaga, agreed with Vega, saying that to ensure that OGCC shall be able to adapt to the changing conditions, the increase in the number of its personnel and corresponding adjustment in their compensation and benefits are inevitable. Aside from Oaminal and Gonzaga,  Deputy Speaker and 1-PACMAN partylist Rep. Michael Odylon Romero and 1-PACMAN partylist Rep. Enrico Pineda,  Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, Paranaque Rep. Eric Olivarez, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, and PBA partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles also authored the bills.