ICI shutdown hit as ‘big fish still free’

March 15, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Saying the “big fish are still swimming free,” Akbayan yesterday questioned the impending shutdown of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI).

“The Filipino people were promised a serious reckoning with the massive corruption behind our failed flood control projects. Instead, what we are seeing is a closing of the books while the big fish remain comfortably out of reach,” Akbayan president Rafaela David said in a statement.

The ICI announced that it would wind down its operations on March 31 after submitting its findings to the Office of the Ombudsman and Department of Justice.

The commission made only nine referrals for prosecution covering 65 people, despite
earlier indications that the investigation could implicate far more personalities involved in questionable projects.

“For a scandal involving billions of pesos in public funds and infrastructure that was supposed to protect communities from devastating floods, nine referrals simply cannot be the end of the story,” David stressed.

She raised questions about the fate of the numerous politicians and other persons of interest invited by the commission during its probe.

“Many personalities were invited to the ICI hearings. Whatever happened to them? Are they going to be charged, arrested and sent to jail?” she asked. “Or will they simply walk away from this scandal while the investigation quietly shuts down?”

Performative?

Analysts lamented that the commission has yet to publicize its report detailing its findings and accomplishments.

“If the ICI does not produce anything in the coming months in terms of charges being filed and corrupted funds being recovered, it will not look good for the administration,” Aries Arugay, a faculty member at the University of the Philippines Department of Political Science, said on Friday on the sidelines of a conference.

“It may mean that (the administration) is merely performative,” Arugay stressed.

Political analyst Ronald Llamas said the sudden end of the ICI pointed to a much broader problem in Marcos’ anti-corruption drive, which began with his defiant “mahiya naman kayo” remark during last year’s State of the Nation Address.

“When they launched this mahiya naman kayo campaign, it seemed they didn’t know where it would lead to,” Llamas told “Sa Totoo Lang” on One PH on Friday. “Now, with many officials implicated – including Cabinet secretaries, a speaker, a Senate president, senators and congressmen – it suddenly stopped.”

“It’s like they’re hesitating to probe key government officials,” Llamas said.

Ferdinand Topacio, who serves as spokesman for the Duterte-aligned Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, labeled the ICI as a “waste of taxpayers’ money.”