SOLICITOR General Jose Calida vowed to pursue the government’s bid to recover the remaining ill-gotten wealth of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and his heirs.
Calida said he is ready to pursue the ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcoses, despite supporting former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in the vice presidential elections last year.
Calida was the leader of the Alyansang Duterte-BongBong or AlDub” that backed the tandem of President Duterte and Marcos in the elections held last year.
“I am now a government official. The elections [last year] has no more bearing on my duty as a government official so it doesn’t matter to me,” the chief state lawyer stressed.
Calida said he has no choice but to fulfill his duty, if House Bill 5233, which seeks to expand the functions of his office to include the recovery of the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth, among others, is passed into law.
“That is the prerogative of Congress, they enact the laws and we will implement that law if it is passed,” he said.
Calida earlier defended before the Supreme Court President Duterte’s order for the burial of the former strongman at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.
Apart from the Marcos cases set to be transferred from the Presidential Commission on Good Government to his office, the proposed law also seeks to transfer to the OSG the work of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.
HB No. 5233 also proposes to place the OSG, which is currently an attached agency of the Department of Justice, under the supervision of the Office of the President to ensure that it becomes a “truly independent and autonomous office.”