MANILA – The Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) remains hopeful that the proposals seeking its abolition will not prosper, a day after some senators questioned the move to scrap the DOJ’s attached unit.
Government Corporate Counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado said there is a “glimmer of hope” for the OGCC to remain as an independent office from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) after the hearing of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Thursday.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Richard Gordon “frowned” on Solicitor General Jose Calida’s proposal to have the OSG absorb the OGCC and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
“The Chairman of the Committee Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon and former Justice Secretary and now Senator Franklin M. Drilon asked the most crucial question to the OSG on its proposal to abolish the OGCC: how will the OSG resolve the conflict of interest issue?” Jurado said in a statement.
“The senators foresee that the abolition of the OGCC and merging its functions with the OSG will certainly present a clear case of conflict of interest considering that these two government law offices would usually find themselves at the opposing sides in court battles. Senator Drilon emphasized the difficulty in resolving the unavoidable conflict of interest in cases where the GOCCs have private minority shareholders like the UCPB,” he noted.
Jurado explained that the government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC) sector is competently serviced by the OGCC, and transferring OGCC’s functions to the OSG will definitely derail the focus of GOCCs in performing their proprietary functions which significantly contribute to the national wealth and development.
He added that the GOCC sector currently holds about PHP11.61 trillion in assets and has contributed PHP40 Billion to the national treasury in terms of dividends in 2016.
Jurado said OCGG’s abolition would not serve the public’s interest and could potentially harm and distort the already working system in government.
Jurado said even the justice department, of which the OGCC is an attached agency, is against the move to abolish the office.
Jurado also pointed out that this proposal might cause adverse effects on investments, saying the proposal of the OSG “will only discourage the investing public from participating in industries where the government is involved, especially when the government’s stake is more than the majority of the outstanding capital stock.”
If the OSG will settle controversies in favor of only ‘one client’, then it is more than definite that the investing public will not be protected,” OCGG’s nine-page position paper read.
He also said that the GOCC sector needs to have a legal counsel and advocate with an established niche in government corporate practice, adding that the OGCC has become an expert in government corporate practice since its establishment in 1935.
The primary function of the OGCC is to serve as the principal law office of all GOCCs, their subsidiaries and other corporate offspring and government-acquired asset corporations, while the OSG is tasked to represent the government and its officers in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and other courts or tribunals in actions where government or any officer in his official capacity is a party. (Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)
