Not even his cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez or his political allies will be spared in the inquiry of the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) into corruption in multibillion-peso flood control projects, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday as he appointed former Supreme Court associate justice Andres Reyes as its chair.

With Reyes’ appointment, the ICI is now complete. He and the earlier named members—former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) chief Rogelio Singson and SGV & Co. country managing partner Rossana Fajardo—were sworn in on Monday afternoon by Court of Appeals Justice Pedro Corales. The ICI’s special adviser and investigator, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, was present at the ceremony.  

Mr. Marcos said the commission will examine all officials linked to the anomalous projects, including the Speaker earlier accused by Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco as having inserted billions of pesos in flood control allocations in the national budget. Romualdez has denied any wrongdoing.

Romualdez and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, former chair of the House committee on appropriations, were also tagged as among the lawmakers who allegedly received kickbacks from flood control contracts.

“Well, there’s only one way to do it: They will not be spared,” the President said in response to a question at a rare press briefing in Malacañang on Monday, referring to his political allies.

“This is about numbers,” he said, adding that it is necessary to find out exactly how much was stolen from taxpayer money: “Magkano ba ang ninakaw na pera ng mga balasubas na ito?”

Mr. Marcos described the ICI’s work as “a turning point in the conduct of governance” in the Philippines. “We have to make a change, and it is a fundamental change in the way that we do business,” he said.

The members of the commission, who have agreed to meet daily, “will be completely independent,” according to Mr. Marcos. He said they will determine their own processes and how they will deliver their findings.

“Beyond that, I cannot tell you how the commission will organize itself,” he said.  “I cannot tell what the secretariat will look like. And the reason I cannot tell you is that these are not my decisions to make anymore; those decisions will be made by the commission.” 

Track record

The President hailed the track record of Reyes, now the chair of the ICI created under Executive Order No. 94 signed on Sept. 11.

A former presiding judge of the Court of Appeals, Reyes brings decades of judicial experience to his new role, according to Mr. Marcos. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by then President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017.

“He has been a jurist for a very, very long time with a very good record of honesty and fairness and a good record of being able to find justice for those who have been victimized,” the President said.

But in response to a request by CoverStory for comment, Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima said that ideally, the ICI should be led by “a retired Supreme Court justice of stature,” such as the tribunal’s retired senior associate justice Antonio Carpio or retired associate justice Conchita Carpio Morales, who later led the Office of the Ombudsman.

“Justice Reyes is relatively unknown to the public and, as such, he still has to establish credibility, unlike the other two, instead of immediately taking on the gargantuan task at hand,” De Lima said in a Viber message on Monday night.

“I myself have to wait and see in the first few weeks to assess if he is up to the challenge,” the party-list lawmaker added. 

‘Investigating themselves’

Remarking on the respective inquiries of the Senate and the House of Representatives into the scandal involving the flood control projects, the President said “it’s hard to be fair” when “they are investigating themselves.” 

He said the appointees to the ICI, except for Magalong, “have no ties to any part of government.” 

“The reason [Magalong] became special adviser [to the commission] is because he would have had to give up his mayorship to [become a member]. So, he chose to keep his mayorship. I don’t blame him, but nonetheless we can use his talent,” Mr. Marcos said.

Senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada were tagged by DPWH assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez, since dismissed from service, as having received kickbacks from flood control projects. Both senators have denied the accusation.

“I would like to stress this, over and over again: [The ICI] is an independent commission and that is why we have taken great pains to make sure that that independence is respected, is recognized, and is observed. And that’s what we plan to do,” Mr. Marcos said.

He said government agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police were not given the task of leading the probe because they are part of the government.

The President also responded to the finding of the think tank Ibon Foundation that billions of pesos in flood control allocations have been given to ruling parties such as the Lakas-CMD led by Romualdez.

“That is not the problem,” he said. “That is not where the problem lies. The problem lies in the actual implementation of the projects. That is what we are investigating.”

In apparent response to a point raised by De Lima when EO 94 was issued—that the ICI’s subpoena powers would be “useless if [it does] not have contempt powers”—Mr. Marcos said that while subpoena powers are necessary, “the power to hold people in contempt, I think, is not necessary simply because this is not a prosecutorial body—this is an investigative body.”

“So, what the commission will do is that they will investigate, they will call people in, they will subpoena records, they will conduct hearings, and once they have their findings, they will forward those findings to the proper agency,” such as the Office of the Ombudsman or the Department of Justice (DOJ), the President said.

“And if such personalities continue to avoid or not cooperate with the Ombudsman or the DOJ, they could be held in contempt. So, we do not lose that power and capability to hold people in contempt should they not cooperate, should they not respect subpoenas, etc.,” he said. 

‘We should all be angry’

The President also said it was the right of Filipinos to express their sentiments during protest rallies, including the mass actions against government corruption scheduled on Sept. 21, the day marked as the beginning of martial law imposed by his father Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1972.

He pointed out that it was he who exposed the anomalies in the flood control projects during his fourth State of the Nation Address in July. “It is in my interest that we find a solution to what has become a very egregious problem,” he said, adding:

“And since these have been all exposed—well, it’s actually known to many people, but it has now been exposed to the general public—do you blame them for going out into the streets?

“If I weren’t President, I might be out in the streets with them.  …Of course, they are enraged. Of course, they are angry. I’m angry, we should all be angry, because what is happening is not right. So, yes, express it. You come, make your feelings known to these people, and make them answerable for [their] wrongdoings.”