‘The Cabral files’

The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) started with a spurt as soon as it got established by Executive Order (EO) 94.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) created the ICI under EO 94 signed on Sept. 11 this year. EO 94 tasked the ICI, among other things, to investigate reported anomalous flood control and other infrastructure projects in the past 10 years.However, just a few days before it could reach its third month of existence, the ICI is now said to be closing shop soon. No less than newly appointed Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla definitively announced the ICI ceases from its existence in the next two months. “T think it (ICI) only has a month or two. Then they can turn over all their work to us,” Remulla quipped.

Remulla literally jumped the gun on the three-man ICI after one of its members, former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary Rogelio Singson, suddenly resigned. Singson publicly admitted his 77-yearold body could no longer absorb the rigors of his tasks at the ICI. His resignation takes effect on Dec. 15 yet.

Since they got established hurriedly through an EO, Singson believes a legislated ICI could better perform the job. As it is at present, he rued, the ICI’s fact-finding duty has made them as the “punching bag” for administration critics. Much worse, the ICI is being tagged as the “washing machine” in protecting certain powerful personalities implicated in the flood control mess.

But what really made the media-savvy ombudsman render such unsolicited estimate on how long the ICI will exist? Perhaps, as a former Marcos Cabinet official, the ex-justice secretary probably was among those who helped craft EO 94 to initially target the scandalous DPWH flood control projects in the Congress-approved 2025 budget law.