MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is looking at shutting down some government-owned and controlled operations (GOCCs) if they continue to lose money.

Presidential Communications Operations office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio "Sonny" Coloma issued the warning amid an ongoing Senate investigation into GOCCs’ finances.

Coloma said the Palace will wait for a recommendation from Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Cesar Purisima regarding the issue.

Purisima aired a similar warning during a Senate finance committee hearing on Tuesday. 

He said the DOF is tightly monitoring 14 GOCCs that are either losing money or have huge debts.

The GOCCs in the red are Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Local Water Utilities Administration, Light Rail Transit Authority, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, National Development Corp., National Electrification Administration, National Food Authority, National Housing Authority, National Irrigation Administration, National Power Corp., Philippine National Oil Co., Philippine National Railways, Philippine Ports Authority, and Home Guarantee Corp.

"Kailangang bigyan ng disiplina itong GOCCs (GOCCs should be disciplined)," he said. "Napabayaan sila, tuloy nag-abuso sila sa paggamit ng resources. (They abused resources because they were not monitored properly.)"

‘Source of corruption’

Meanwhile, Senator Franklin Drilon believes that some unscrupulous officials of GOCCs could be using their intelligence funds to line their own pockets. 

In the Senate hearing, Drilon accused Clark Development Corporation (CDC) President Benigno Ricafort of failing to properly liquidate around P10 million in funds received by his office.

"This is a source of corruption, to put it bluntly," Drilon said.

He said Ricafort issued certificates instead of submitting receipts to explain how he spent his office’s intelligence funds.

He also expressed alarm at an increase in GOCCs’ intelligence funds in the proposed 2011 national budget.

Department of Budget and Management Undersecretary Mario Ralampagos told senators during the hearing that intelligence funds earmarked for GOCCs and state agencies will rise from P1.38 billion in 2009 to P1.46 billion next year. 

"This raises red flags to us," Drilon said.

The Senate finance committee chair also wants to ensure that GOCCs properly remit their earnings to the national government. 

He said the state firms should only remitted P11.9 billion to the government in 2008 instead of an estimated P15 billion. 

"The remittances (are) a good source of revenue for the government (that have) not been fully utilized as a revenue measure. Therefore, this is one area where a close monitoring must be done," Drilon stressed. - with reports from Ryan Chua and Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News