Carpio: ICI faces impartiality issues

The Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI), a fact-finding body created by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to probe alleged irregularities in flood control and other infrastructure contracts with the government, has a tough task ahead to convince the public of its impartiality.

The Senate and the House of Representatives are conducting their own own probes into the anomaly, which former Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio believes should continue for the public to have points of comparison when the ICI starts its proceedings.

The ICI’s impartiality would be tested by its actions on “more or less three groups that will be investigated: those who belong to the opposition, those who are part of the Romualdez group in the House of Representatives, and those who also belong to the President’s party,” according to Carpio.

The former magistrate said the public would have to watch whether the ICI “will cover all three groups.”

The former magistrate said the public would have to watch whether the ICI “will cover all three groups.”

The ICI has been granted broad powers to file charges; it can start with the contracts in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), where there’s a paper trail.

“That makes it easy. If they visit the site and it’s a ghost project, they can immediately file cases. If it’s substandard, then it still needs technical evaluation. But even that is not too hard, because you can easily see if it’s substandard,” Carpio indicated.

“It can move quickly. Because those DPWH officials involved are under the supervision and control of DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, he can immediately file cases.”

Carpio is not ready to pass judgment on the ICI, saying, “I will give them the benefit of the doubt, because I presume that they have good intentions to solve this problem. The entire nation is looking to them for results. But of course, we will be watching, and we will see whether they will truly investigate everybody, not just selectively.”

He believes the parallel inquiries should continue “because the whole country will see that they (the suspects in the fiasco) have to answer in the House, in the Senate, and in the ICI, so we can check if they’re really being consistent.” The multiple probes will also increase the opportunity to uncover more irregularities.

SC moves seen

As the political climate worsens, the Supreme Court (SC) is expected to soon rule on a string of pending complaints.

Carpio said the SC can act and speak only through decisions. “And the decisions will come after the parties have submitted all their pleadings and the case is ripe for resolution. So it’s not that fast. It’s not as quick as executive or legislative action. But we should expect the Supreme Court to rule on these pending cases faster,” he explained.