MANILA – The Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GCG) is pushing for the amendments to Republic Act No. 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011.
“In order to efficiently operate as a regulatory body for the GOCC sector, RA 10149 is proposed to be amended to address issues and clarify and strengthen the powers and functions of the GCG,” GCG chairperson Justice Alex Quiroz said in a statement on Tuesday.
The GCG is a creation of RA 10149.
Quiroz and GCG Commissioner lawyer Gideon Mortel recently met with House Speaker Martin Romualdez to discuss the proposed amendments.
Mortel said there are draft bills to be submitted to the House leadership, already discussed with Parañaque First District Rep. Edwin Olivarez, chairperson of the Committee on Government Enterprises and Privatization.
In December 2022, the GCG also submitted its proposed amendments to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who chairs the Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises.
Among the salient points of the proposed amendments is the standardization of the definition of GOCCs.
Under RA 10149, GOCC “refers to any agency organized as a stock or nonstock corporation, vested with functions relating to public needs whether governmental or proprietary in nature, and owned by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines directly or through its instrumentalities either wholly or, where applicable as in the case of stock corporations, to the extent of at least a majority of its outstanding capital stock.”
The GCG also seeks to fix the terms of the office of the GCG chairperson and commissioners, create an office for a GCG executive director, and is asking Congress for subpoena and contempt powers as well as investigative and disciplinary powers.
It is likewise seeking express power to consolidate, rationalize, and integrate GOCCs into national government agencies (NGAs).
The agency also seeks to be granted the authority to determine the appropriate incentive programs for all employees affected by any rationalization, reorganization, merger, consolidation, integration into an NGA, abolition, or privatization of GOCCs.
Quiroz said a study of the profiles of GOCCs under the GCG indicates that some GOCCs have functions that are duplicative of what is already being carried out by other NGAs or GOCCs.
“We can recommend to the Office of the President that it would be economical for those GOCCs which are not financially viable, but are performing vital public service, to be converted into or transferred to NGAs,” he said. (PNA)
