De Lima, Akbayan express displeasure over ICI closure

Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila De Lima expressed her displeasure with the subpar operations of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, which is set to cease operations by the end of March.

De Lima aired her grievances regarding the issue through a post on her Facebook profile, where she asserted that the committee formed under Executive Order No. 94 of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. failed to deliver on its promise of uncovering everyone involved in the flood control scandal.

“They formed the committee as the Independent Commission ‘for Infrastructure’ but only probed flood control – it hasn’t even investigated everything. The livestreaming it did was pointless,” her post read.

The former senator further criticized the lack of urgency on the part of the President to act on the proposed Independent Commission Against Infrastructure Corruption, which she said was a “more equipped” body compared to the ICI.

“The ICI has been ordered to close, meanwhile the ICAIC bill has yet to advance. They said it was a priority, but nothing has happened,” she stated.

The proposed ICI replacement was part of House Bill 4453, which was co-signed by De Lima and representatives from different party-lists and districts, meant to have the ability to seek and conduct legal action against the parties it was inspecting.

De Lima said that the development of the investigative body was merely a publicity stunt, as it did not live up to its claims that justice will be served for the misuse of the public's funds.

“Otherwise, it is becoming clearer by the day that the public is just being taken for a ride, that the administration gave false promises of a serious investigation and the announcement that a big fish was going to be imprisoned in the biggest corruption scam in our history,” she expressed.

“This administration should be ashamed.”

Aside from the solon, Akbayan Party President Rafaella David called on the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice to finish what the ICI was supposed to.

The ICI Chairperson Andres Reyes Jr. said on Friday that it had delivered documents to the Office of Ombudsman Remulla, noting that it had indicated nine referrals citing 65 individuals involved in the scandal.

“For a scandal involving billions of pesos in public funds and infrastructure that was supposed to protect communities from devastating floods, nine referrals simply cannot be the end of the story,” said David.