The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has recovered more than P267 billion in ill-gotten wealth since 1986.

This was revealed by Senator Juan Edgardo ‘’Sonny’’M. Angara, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, during today’s (Nov. 17) deliberations on the proposed 2022 P24.8 billion budget of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its attached agencies.

He said the PCGG reported that of the P267 billion, P174 billion was in cash and P93.8 billion in non-cash such as stocks.

PCGG has at present 87 cases.

Of these, 22 refers to behest loans, 28 cases against PCGG and one case each in the United States and Switzerland.

PCGG was created in February, 1986 by the first Executive Order signed President Cory Aquino who replaced the President Ferdinand E. Marcos following the 1986 EDSA People Power.

In another development, Senator Grace Poe, chairwoman of the Senate Public Services committee, asked officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) during the deliberation of the P10.5 billion budget of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on how the agency could prevent the country’s emergency text alerts from being used by unscrupulous individuals to illegally promote products and services or besmirch the reputation of others.

Poe made the inquiry after receiving reports that emergency text alerts were used to promote certain products and even certain individuals.

“I understand that it is really possible that the NTC... is not connected with this scheme because it will be detrimental to them, especially if it’s known that they used an official government channel to spread information,” Poe said.

Allaying the fear of Poe, Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, vice chairman of the Senate Finance committee, said the NTC is seeking assistance from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to identify those who are behind this scheme.