The Independent Commission on Infrastructures (ICI) failed in putting a dent on flood control corruption, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said, refusing to investigate the source of fraud in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
ICI’s biggest failure is the refusal to investigate Marcos who enabled the flood control mess, the group said, adding it was the president who signed the 2023 and 2024 national budgets that funded fraudulent public works projects.
“The year ended without any agency or commission investigating the link between Malacañang and the roll out of pork barrel projects and anomalous insertions in the national budget approved by the president,” BAYAN pointed out.
ICI’s sin of omission is its willful dismissal of the allegation that Marcos is culpable for the large-scale corruption under his administration, the alliance said.
“At the minimum, ICI could have verified the claims of Zaldy Co that he delivered billions of kickbacks to Marcos and his top subordinates in Malacañang,” BAYAN said.
ICI has recommended the filing of charges against some officials, including public works engineers, contractors and legislators, but it did not include Cabinet officials and the president named in whistleblower accounts and parallel investigations in the Senate.
BAYAN said ICI thus failed to go after masterminds that crafted the budgets that enabled lower-ranked officials and contractors to “download” budgets that funded substandard, even ghost flood control projects.
ICI has concluded its investigations after two of its three commissioners have resigned by year’s end, making it untenable to continue the commission’s probes.
“ICI’s ignoble end is its own undoing. It promised to livestream its sessions but it ended up turning the people’s demand for truth and accountability into a closed-door transaction among corrupt bureaucrats,” BAYAN highlighted.
ICI’s abrupt closure affirmed that the real reason for its creation is to distract public attention, divert corruption investigations, and whitewash the accountability of Marcos and Malacañang, BAYAN concluded.
BAYAN said it will organize another massive anti-corruption rally in February to coincide with 40th anniversary of the People Power uprising that deposed Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“BAYAN calls on the people to continue to push for accountability by holding protests and denouncing the continued insertion of pork barrel funds in the 2026 budget,” it said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
