3 lawyers named to PCGG

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has appointed three lawyers as new commissioners of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

The three are Ateneo Law School graduates Gerard Mosquera, who placed second in the Bar examinations; Law School 2002 valedictorian Maita Chan-Gonzaga; and Chevening scholar and Evelio Javier Leadership Awardee Richard Amurao.

The three will join PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista, himself a 1990 Ateneo Law School valedictorian, Bar topnotcher, Harvard Law graduate and former partner of an international law firm, in the effort of the government to recover ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies.

Mosquera earned his Master in Laws from Kings College, University of London in 2002 under the prestigious Chevening scholarship, after which he earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where he received the 2010 Littauer Award for Academic Excellence and Leadership.

Before and after his stint at Harvard, Mosquera has been leading the US Agency for International Development-funded anti-corruption programs, among which is the “Justice Institution Strengthening in East Timor.”

Gonzaga, as law class valedictorian, received the St. Thomas More Award given to the most distinguished graduate.

She placed fourth in the Bar examinations, and obtained her Magister Juris from Oxford University in 2008. Gonzaga had focused her professional career on law teaching and human rights.

Amurao, for his part, has completed his L.L.M. degree at the London School of Economics in 2006 as a Chevening scholar. Before his appointment, he was working at the Asian Development Bank where he served as a consultant in the bank’s Governance in Justice Sector Reform Program.

Nick Suarez, PCGG chief information officer, said that two of the three new appointees, Gonzaga and Amurao, joined the agency’s flag ceremony yesterday and were formally introduced by Bautista as their new officials.

Mosquera is expected to arrive in the country this Friday.

All three, according to Bautista, will officially assume their posts on Oct. 1, or this Friday.

Suarez said it was still unclear which of the four holdover commissioners, namely Ricardo Abcede, former Sandiganbayan associate justice Narciso Nario, Tereso Javier, and former envoy to Moscow Jaime Bautista, that the three newly appointed commissioners would replace.

Rainier Allan Ronda, Philippine Star