ICI chair Reyes: Flood control probe livestreaming rules will take some time

Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) chairman Andres Reyes Jr. said Friday it will take some time for the body to finish the draft of the rules for the livestreaming of hearings on flood control corruption.

“I don't know. It will take some time. They have to look at the procedures of all the courts, all the leading bodies,” Reyes said at a press conference.

Reyes noted that the ICI is undermanned, having only five lawyers and tapping eight lawyers from the Public Attorney's Office (PAO).

“We have to remember, we only have five lawyers. So it takes some time. We borrowed eight from the PAO. So now we have 13 but they are undermanned. But we will try to finish it,” he said.

On September 28, the ICI announced that hearings would not be livestreamed to avoid ‘trial by publicity’ and any political influence in the investigation on flood control corruption.

But on Wednesday, the ICI changed its decision, saying the body will livestream its proceedings on the flood control controversy beginning next week.

“We will try our best to be able to full blast investigation of all these fraud. We don’t have the facility, we don’t have the rules of procedure, but we will already shorten the procedure in spite of no rules allowing us, we will now go on livestream next week once we get to be able to have the technical capability with us already,” Reyes earlier said at a Senate hearing. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News