Greco Belgica, 43, is an entrepreneur, pastor and politician who most recently served as chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, an attached bureau under the Office of the President tasked with assisting President Rodrigo Duterte in investigating and hearing administrative cases against presidential appointees involving graft and corruption.
Belgica was elected as councilor of the 6th District of the City of Manila from 2004 to 2007, a post his father Grepor Belgica also held.
He ran for senator in the 2013 elections with the Democratic Party of the Philippines but failed to win a seat with just 2.81% of the vote. Later that year, Belgica was among those who successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to scrap the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel fund. He ran again for a Senate seat in 2016, this time independently but with the endorsement of Duterte. He failed to win a seat again with just 4.62% of the total votes.
As PACC chairman from March 2021 until his resignation in October 2021, Belgica supported Duterte’s anti-corruption efforts and investigations in the executive branch of government. However, his mandate did not involve investigating the Office of the President itself and was only limited to high-ranking government officials, which he said he would push to expand if he were elected senator. Belgica has historically backed Duterte in all his policy positions.
In 2018, Belgica sought accreditation for his new political party, the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan, which seeks to support the Duterte administration’s push for federalism and constitutional reform in the Philippines.
Belgica is running for the Senate on a platform of pushing for stricter anti-corruption measures in the legislative branch. In his earlier run for the Senate in 2013, Belgica, a Christian pastor, vowed to push for the return of the death penalty for heinous crimes, which he said should include corruption from government officials. He said such a measure would ultimately discourage corruption among the government’s ranks down to the barangay level.
His father has been a presidential adviser on religious affairs since 2019, after his appointments to other government commissions while his brother, Jeremiah Belgica, is the Anti-Red Tape Authority secretary.
The candidate's top priorities if elected to office, tracked against previous promises and accomplishments, if any
- Unspecified amendments to bank secrecy and anti-wire tapping law
- Formation of local and barangay anti-corruption councils to “intensify” anti-corruption efforts
- Passage of a law expanding the role and jurisdiction of the Anti-Corruption Coordinating Councils in government agencies to include local and barangay government bodies
During his 2016 senatorial campaign, vowed to push for abolition of Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel and convert this to a tuition voucher fund to help students
- As PACC chief, spearheaded a Task Force on Lifestyle Check to probe unexplained wealth of officials in the executive branch and acted on some 9,000 complaints of corruption in government
- Silent on anomalies and allegations of corruption surrounding the government's deals with its favored pandemic supplier Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.
- Creation of Anti Corruption and Anti-Red Tape Police force
- Continuation of the Duterte administration’s “war on drugs” and campaign against criminality
- Supports reimposition of death penalty for heinous crimes, including drug-related cases and corruption, to strengthen administration’s “war” against corruption and crime
In his 2019 Senate campaign, claimed that there is a need to sustain the gains of the Duterte administration, particularly against graft and corruption and illegal drugs, and deter criminals
In August 2020, he stressed the need to impose death penalty on corrupt officials, beliving that corruption is as “heinous crime” that is just as bas as murder becasue thousands of people suffer because of corrupt officials
Vowed to amend the Local Government Code and push for the removal of the annual real property tax to ease public burden
Also reiterated his 2013 Senate campaign push for flat 10% uniform income tax rate on individuals and large and small businesses to raise government revenues and usher in economic recovery
Promised to put up COVID-19 clinics in every provincial hospital and barangay that will provide patients with free medicines and train doctors with procedures and protocols used in other countries