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EJ Macababbad - The Philippine Star
December 30, 2025 | 12:00am
File photo shows Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong in a press conference.
Photo from CCD / Philippine Information Agency Cordillera Administrative Region
MANILA, Philippines — For the former special adviser of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), the key question now is whether Malacañang can still find replacements for the two commissioners who resigned this month.
“Even if there’s an intention to appoint again, maybe no one will volunteer,” Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong told True FM yesterday. “That’s the most challenging part – no one will volunteer or no one wants to.”
Without new officials to fill the posts vacated by former public works secretary Rogelio Singson and SGV & Co. country managing partner Rossana Fajardo, Magalong said dissolving the ICI may be the only option.
“If there’s no quorum, the ICI will not be able to proceed with its work and perform its mandate,” he said. “Eventually, if there’s no other commissioner to be elected, maybe they will terminate the commission.”
The ICI is now left with the chairman, retired justice Andres Reyes Jr., executive director and former Supreme Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka and special adviser and former police chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr.
Magalong was the first to resign, stepping down just two weeks after President Marcos issued Executive Order 94 creating the ICI.
Singson quit on Dec. 15, citing health reasons, while Fajardo will formally step down on Dec. 31 after having “completed the work I set out to accomplish when I was appointed.”
Palace press officer Claire Castro said on Sunday that there are no discussions yet on replacing the two commissioners, citing pending bills in Congress that seek to establish a permanent independent commission with broader powers.
“The President wants the law to be passed properly,” Castro said over radio dzBB. “He doesn’t want the jurisdictions of the ombudsman, Department of Justice and the proposed independent commission to be overlapping.”
