President Bongbong Marcos signaled reluctance to certify as urgent the proposal to replace the Independent Commission for Infrastructure with a stronger Independent People’s Commission as lawmakers intensified efforts to expand the investigative body’s mandate.
The President’s position followed Ombudsman Boying Remulla’s statement that the ICI may operate only until February, when its ongoing inquiries on public works corruption could be absorbed by the anti-graft office.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III filed the bill creating the IPC to institutionalize a permanent commission with broader authority than the ICI. The IPC proposal includes subpoena powers, the authority to cite individuals in contempt, and jurisdiction over all forms of government anomalies.
Sotto said the new commission would be equipped to pursue corruption cases directly. He said, “All the anomalies, the corruption, the anomalies in the NIA, in agriculture, all of that will be prosecuted.
The IPC can investigate all of that.” He also suggested expanding the planned five-member panel to seven by including representatives from the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman. He said the President would appoint the IPC members and that the body must be led by a former chief justice.
Malacañang raised concerns about potential overlap with existing agencies. Presidential press officer Claire Castro said, “If Congress will pass a law creating such a body, we just hope that its constitutionality would not be questioned because it may cause redundancy in functions of other government agencies.” She said the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice already have authority to conduct hearings and evaluate probable cause. Castro added that the President does not want the new body to hold contempt powers and does not see a need to certify the bill as urgent while Congress is still deliberating on it.
The ICI was created by Marcos through Executive Order 94 in September and is chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Andres Reyes Jr. The commission functions as a fact-finding body that conducts hearings, receives testimony, and evaluates evidence before submitting recommendations to the Office of the Ombudsman. It has recommended the filing of cases against former Sen. Ramon Revilla, Jr. and resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co in connection with alleged diversion of public works funds.
Castro said the Cabinet has not yet discussed the Ombudsman’s statement on the commission’s possible dissolution by February. She said, “We have not yet discussed if the ICI’s mandate will end in two months’ time, because we have seen that ICI has provided significant assistance in the ongoing anticorruption investigations.”
