The Independent Commission on Infrastructures (ICI) is a lost cause, with nothing substantial to show after its three months of so-called investigations, a coalition of progressive partylists said.
Following the resignation of its second commissioner, Makabayan said the ICI failed to show real transparency and its credibility had always been in question.
Asked to react to Commissioner Rossana Fajardo’s resignation on Friday, Makabayan said ICI’s investigations failed to help the president deliver on his promise to put corrupt government officials behind bars by Christmas.
Fajardo said her “courtesy resignation” is due to her belief that ICI’s investigations shall be transferred to other agencies such as the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman.
She is the second of three commissioners to resign after former public works chief Rogelio Singson who resigned last month, citing stress and security concerns.
ICI chief Andres Reyes said he will refer the remaining results of their investigations the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Commission last November recommended the filing of charges against 37 personalities, including senators and representatives, allegedly involved in anomalous flood control projects.
This prompted Marcos Jr. to vow that those named would be spending Christmas behind bars.
As of Christmas day, however, only public works engineers and contractors are being detained in various jails while no elective official has been formally charged.
Makabayan said this failure is because the ICI was only created to make it appear that Marcos Jr. is serious about investigating corruption.
“Three months since its creation, it has unraveled and has exposed the empty anti-corruption rhetoric of the Marcos regime,” the group said.
Makabayan revealed it has formally requested the ICI to investigate Marcos himself for approving budget insertions used for the anomalous projects but was given the silent treatment.
“ICI appears selective and has no interest in going up the highest levels of government to uncover corruption,” it told reporters.
“We also do not know the status of our request for investigation into the Davao flood control projects,” ruing that ICI did nothing when Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte ignored its summons.
“It’s proof that the ICI cannot really do so much in uncovering corruption if resource persons refuse to cooperate,” Makabayan said.
In a separate statement, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan president Renato Reyes Jr. said Marcos, Jr is ending 2025 “on a losing streak.”
“No big fish behind bars by Christmas, a budget rocked by controversy over pork, several top cabinet officials forced to resign over corruption allegations, and a doomed ICI whose members have resigned,” Reyes said.
“All these expose his entire anti-corruption rhetoric as a sham. He has been at the center of the corruption allegations with SOP’s (“standard operating procedure”) going all the way to Malacanang,” he said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
