Drilon: ICI may be abolished if IPC is created

The Palace-created Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) may be abolished once the Independent People’s Commission (IPC) is institutionalized through law, former Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Wednesday.

Drilon made the remarks in an ambush interview after the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights’ hearing to tackle Senate Bill No. 1215, which seeks to create the IPC to probe anomalies in all government infrastructure projects. 

“Well, it (ICI) will be abolished. I mean because that (IPC) is put into law or by passing a law to support a body which is created only by an executive order. It gives a certain degree of formality rather than an executive order which can be revoked by the President at any time,” the ex-senator said. 

He noted that the IPC may just adopt the findings and the information gathered by the ICI from its investigation of anomalous flood control projects.

“That still remains valid and I’m sure there’ll be a transitory provision in the proposed measure which will govern and provide rules as to how to handle the cases already investigated,” Drilon said.

During the hearing, Drilon called on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to certify SB No. 1215 as urgent, emphasizing that the people are already angry with allegations of corruption hounding the government.

Drilon, a former justice secretary, stressed that the functions of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit should not be duplicated, but strengthened, with the potential creation of the IPC.

“This commission should not be a new body that will be perpetually funded and existent. We have enough institutions for democracy. In my view, we have to strengthen them but in the meantime, let us have this ad hoc body in order to restore the faith of our people in our justice system and mollify the people, make them believe that democracy is still the best system for our governance,” he added. 

In September, Marcos issued Executive Order 94 that created the ICI as an non-partisan fact-finding body that will investigate irregularities in flood control projects and infrastructure projects in the last 10 years.

On Wednesday, ICI chair Andres Reyes Jr. told the Senate that the ICI will livestream its proceedings by next week as part of efforts towards transparency in its probe. — JMA, GMA Integrated News