Amid the Senate and House hearings on corruption in the country, and the outrage of the Filipino as expressed in the protest rallies in September, the call for transparency and accountability in the country has been the loudest. It is clear that the Filipino people want an end to the massive and endemic corruption perpetrated by public officials and greedy government contractors.
One solution that has been offered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), which was created to investigate anomalies in multi-billion peso public works projects.
Filipinos, who have been religiously following the Senate hearings on the issue, were disappointed to be told that ICI hearings and deliberations will not get the same degree of transparency.
According to ICI executive director Brian Hosaka, “The ICI is avoiding trial by publicity and will not allow itself to be used for any political leverage or agenda by any individual or group.”
While grandstanding politicians have indeed been exploiting the exposure in the name of transparency, providing a bizarre form of entertainment for the millions of viewers who await bombshell exposes from ‘resource persons’ invited to the hearing, it is not difficult to understand the disappointment of some quarters in the decision of the ICI to not be as transparent.
After all, with revelations of massive corruption putting trust in government at a new low, Filipinos are suspicious of the potential for cover-ups, and that the ICI is being used to either protect or target certain officials and contractors only.
With the anticorruption hearings garnering unprecedented interest, a more accessible ICI probe would allow people to follow the process and see that justice is indeed being delivered, instead of the drama, grandstanding, and bluster in Senate investigations, which while revealing, lack teeth and follow through as its primary purpose is only “in aid of legislation.”
More access to the ICI proceedings will be good for all. It will whet the people’s desire for truth, and show them that the system is actually working, instead of suspecting that the lack of transparency means it is being manipulated from behind the scenes.
Hopefully the ICI can find the ways and means to make its investigation more transparent to the public, as shining the light on all that is rotten is the only way for the system to finally be cleaned up and reformed.*
