President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants us to believe that the newly formed Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) will be different. He swears it will be politics-free, untouchable, and willing to โspare no oneโ โ not even his cousin, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, or his allies in Congress.
But letโs not forget: this is the Philippines, where commissions and investigations have long been used as political deodorant.
The problem is not whether the ICI looks independent on paper. The problem is whether it has the courage to sink its teeth into those who sit closest to power. Because when the President says โthey will not be spared,โ he is, in effect, daring the commission to prove him right.
Politics runs through the floodwaters
The allegations are damning: billions of pesos poured into flood control projects riddled with anomalies. Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco even pointed directly at Romualdez and former appropriations chair Zaldy Co.
And yet, in typical fashion, the President downplayed the issue as one of โimplementation,โ not allocation. Translation: the problem is not political favoritism, just how the money was spent. But who signed off on those spending priorities? Who benefited from the allocations in the first place?
Marcosโ line conveniently shields the system that has kept ruling parties flush with funds while leaving opposition districts scrambling.
An inconvenient truth
The President also took a swipe at congressional probes, saying lawmakers are โinvestigating themselves.โ Fair point. But isnโt this what the ICI will face too? A test of whether it can resist the gravitational pull of political patronage.
The truth is this: commissions, no matter how independent their resumes look, are only as strong as the political will backing them. Marcos says he will not interfere. But will he sit back when the trail of accountability leads to the former Speaker of the House โ his own cousin?
A turning point, or another dead end?
Yes, the ICI has subpoena powers. Yes, its members are respected professionals. Yes, it promises daily meetings. But letโs not mistake motion for progress. Unless the ICI holds the powerful to account, it will simply become another expensive performance of โreform.โ
The floodwaters of corruption have risen too high. Billions of pesos have been washed away while communities remain submerged in literal floods.
If the ICI is to be a real turning point, it must prove that blood is not thicker than water โ that political dynasty does not trump accountability. Otherwise, this will just be another chapter in the long history of investigations that began with fireworks and ended with nothing but smoke.
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