Losses in government-owned or-controlled corporations (GOCCs) are arguments against plans by the Executive Department to take over private firms in emergency plans being drafted by the Department of Justice, Recto said.

This early, 27 GOCCs have projected to post a combined net loss of R73.6 billion next year, he pointed out. Taxpayers, therefore, have to shell out R14.4 billion in budgetary support next year, the chairman of the Senate ways and means committee said.

Soured investments by GOCCs, using borrowed funds, have also padded the national debt which recently topped the R6 trillion level, he said. "Our GOCCs and GFIs (government financial institutions), save for a very few, swim in a sea of red ink. They know how to ruin, but not run, for profit firms. They are the very arguments against a (planned) government takeover of private firms," he said.

Some of these private firms are into power distribution, transportation and oil complexes.

Recto said government might be able to compel key corporations to operate during "times of emergency" but to actually "operate complex facilities as oil refineries, power plants or even medical centers is beyond its competence.

"What government can probably do is "point a gun on the technical guys who operate these but to deploy government men who will stand in for these experts is something it can only dream of," he said.

There is also no guarantee that an emergency rule would make the trains run on time, he pointed out.

Proof that the government does not have the acumen for business lies in the trail of bad debts that defunct public corporations had left behind, he said. "A chunk of our R722 billion debt service next year are due to ‘assumed liabilities’ or loans transferred to the government," he said.

Recto admitted that while there are "world class technical people" in state firms such as the National Power Corporation and Philippine National Oil Corporation, their skills may not match with those required of running refineries.""Or we may have the right people but their number may not be sufficient in taking over a public utility," he said.