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MANILA, Philippines — “The performance is really below expectations.”
That’s the blunt assessment of Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong when asked on Dec. 23, 2025 how the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), for which he served as special adviser for a mere two weeks, had been faring.
Magalong did not criticize the ICI on its progress in probing thousands of anomalous infrastructure projects.
Rather, he lamented the few weapons in the ICI’s arsenal to confront such a gargantuan task.
“Expectations are high and the dedication of the commissioners, there’s no doubt; they’re really dedicated (and) they’re very committed,” Magalong told One News. “It’s the lack of power, lack of funding.”
With the web of corruption slowly emerging from the shadows, President Marcos promised to form an independent body to review infrastructure projects, identify anomalies and recommend charges to hold culprits accountable.
Marcos made good on that promise on Sept. 11, creating the ICI through Executive Order 94, comprised of three people who would conduct hearings, gather testimonies, evaluate evidence and issue subpoenas in the hopes of ferreting out the truth in the multibillion-peso corruption mess.
“We will not meddle in their work,” Marcos assured the public on Sept. 15, as his relatives and political allies got dragged into the widening scandal, chief of which is his cousin, then speaker Martin Romualdez.
That promise of independence was put to the test when Marcos began tapping certain people to join the commission.
Some news outlets reported that retired justices Antonio Carpio and Estela Perlas-Bernabe would hop on, but that did not materialize.
Instead, another retired justice, Andres Reyes Jr., took the helm of the ICI, with former public works chief Rogelio Singson and accountant Rossana Fajardo serving as members.
Magalong, an outspoken anti-corruption crusader, became special adviser and investigator.
Marcos then transferred Brian Keith Hosaka, a former Supreme Court spokesman, from managing government-owned and controlled corporations to handling administrative matters at the fact-finding body as executive director.
“We have taken great pains to make sure that that independence is respected, is recognized and it’s observed, and that’s what we plan to do,” the President said.
String of resignations
But just 15 days after EO 94’s issuance, rumors circulated that Magalong was stepping down from the ICI.
Magalong’s situation was further complicated by the discovery of a P110-million tennis court and parking lot built by St. Gerrard Construction, one of nine firms owned by the beleaguered contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya.
A day later, on Sept. 27, he confirmed his resignation, saying, “This was not an easy choice, but one I believe is necessary.”
He later disclosed that he was taken aback by Malacañang’s announcement that he was appointed merely as an adviser and not an investigator, contrary to the official Palace statement on his appointment. He said he must have struck “too close to home,” but did not elaborate.
Speaking to his constituents that week, Magalong apologized for neglecting his role as Baguio mayor. “I’ve never been so busy in my entire life. Only now,” he said.
The ICI’s first setback foreshadowed the string of resignations that have beset and distracted the commission.
On Dec. 3, Reyes confirmed what the rumor mill had been churning out that day: Singson would also quit.
“He mentioned the very intense and stressful ICI work has taken its toll on his aging body,” the ICI chair said of his 77-year-old lieutenant.
Singson kept insisting that the powers that be did not meddle with the commission.
Instead, it was the added work of having to conduct the probe from the vantage point of an engineer and a lawyer that affected his well-being.
“This is the first time in my life that I’ve been asked to take maintenance medication for the heart, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high creatinine, name it,” Singson said on Dec. 4. “Everything is a red flag in my body.”
Malacañang received Singson’s resignation letter as early as mid-November, but kept silent about it.
By Dec. 15, there was no turning back for the former public works chief – he’s out.
On the day of Singson’s presser, The STAR received a tip that Magalong’s successor, former police chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr., was also headed for the exit.
But Azurin quickly dispelled the rumors a day later, saying in a television interview, “Until the government needs my service, I will continue.”
A week later, Magalong insinuated that Fajardo could also step down, citing the pile of work she needed to attend to as country managing partner of audit firm SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co.
On the day after Christmas, Fajardo issued a statement saying that her stint at the ICI will end on Dec. 31, having performed her duties already.
“I have completed the work I set out to accomplish when I was appointed, ensuring that the foundational goals of the Commission have been met,” she said in a statement, which includes recommendations to improve government procurement and budget processes.
Where’s the budget, powers?
Day by day, it became evident that independence might not the problem for the ICI, but the lack of resources and full authority.
The ICI’s P41-million operational budget for 2025, which comes from the Office of the President’s contingent fund and was approved by the budget department along with the ICI’s staffing pattern on Nov. 5, was only downloaded a full month later – just three weeks before the new year.
Without a clear funding source, ICI members had to pay out of pocket to cover travel and logistical expenses.
Magalong, no longer with the ICI since September, has not been reimbursed yet.
Volunteer lawyers and staffers were earning nothing from their work.
Singson said he could not lure people from the private sector to join the ICI, given the huge wages they get from their lucrative jobs.
Even the equipment used by the fact-finding body is not its property.
“I have to ask friends from the private sector to lend us printers. You won’t believe it,” Singson said in a television interview.
For 2026, appropriations for the ICI will hinge on the terms set in a new law granting it more powers, but Congress has not come close to passing it.
Senators are pursuing an Independent People’s Commission, while representatives are batting for the Independent Commission Against Infrastructure Corruption.
Marcos has asked the legislature to fast-track measures forming an independent body.
Lawmakers are hellbent on passing a law giving ICI more teeth, as the commission is currently powerless to hold witnesses in contempt, issue hold-departure orders, cancel passports and seize assets.
With these weaknesses, resource persons such as resigned lawmaker Zaldy Co and Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte have easily snubbed the ICI without any consequences.
The fact-finding body issued two subpoenas to Co, a central player in the flood control mess, to learn about the budget process during his controversial time as appropriations committee chair, but not even his lawyers appeared.
Duterte was also invited to shed light on alleged anomalous flood works in his district, with his political nemesis, Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, asking the ICI to investigate P4.4 billion worth of supposedly irregular projects from 2019 to 2022.
“Considering that the ICI is a creation of President Marcos, per EO 94, the ICI appears without power or jurisdiction over me,” the Davao lawmaker said, adding, “Your power is purely limited to the executive branch.”
The ICI has convened dozens of state agencies to form a technical working group on asset recovery, focusing on restituting assets illegally obtained using taxpayers’ money.
But Singson admitted it is just a workaround to retrieve money using administrative means.
“What we wanted to convey was that the ICI, as it is today, does not have enough powers to be able to execute as quickly as we can what we need to do,” the former public works chief stressed.
As a result, the ICI has become a “punching bag,” as Singson told Caloocan Rep. Egay Erice in a private conversation, for the public to vent its frustration over the snail-paced corruption probe.
“People say we should jail the corrupt, but we have no power to do it. Everyone blames the ICI for being slow, for supposedly protecting the big fish. All kinds of accusations have been thrown against us,” the resigned ICI commissioner lamented.
And the commission’s very own existence is now hanging in the balance. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla predicted that the ICI has a month or two left before turning over its work to his office, which has the actual powers to pursue personalities behind the flood control mess.
“The ICI is not intended to be forever. We have the law that created the Office of the Ombudsman. And we are now very active. In the coming year, we will be hiring young lawyers to carry on the job,” Remulla said in an interview.
But Reyes sees it differently.
He said the battle-scarred, three-month-old commission he leads is “good for two years.”
