The Independent Commission for Infrastructure said livestreaming of its hearings will not begin next week as planned, citing the need to first draft rules to protect the rights of witnesses and resource persons.
Brian Hosaka, ICI’s executive director, told reporters on Thursday, October 23, that the procedures for broadcasting the hearings have yet to be finalized. There are also no hearings scheduled next week due to the unavailability of Commissioner Babes Singson.
“We would have to draft the rules for livestreaming,” Hosaka said. “But definitely when we draft the rules we will also show it to the public.”
The ICI’s clarification today is meant to temper expectations following Chairperson Justice Andres Reyes’s remarks at a Senate hearing yesterday, when he said the commission would begin livestreaming ‘next week, once we have the technical capability.’
Reyes made the promise during the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights’ hearing on a bill that seeks to expand the ICI’s powers under Executive Order 94, which created the body in September to investigate corruption and irregularities in government infrastructure projects.
While the ICI is pushing to livestream the hearings “as soon as possible,” Reyes said in a statement read by Hosaka on Thursday that any move to open proceedings to the public must also take into consideration the rights of invited resource persons and sensitive information shared.
“Previously, we stated that the proceedings of the Commission would be confidential to avoid ‘trial by publicity,’ political grandstanding, sensationalism, and disinformation,” Reyes said in his written statement.
These concerns remain valid, Reyes said, and “protecting the integrity of the investigation is still paramount.”
But Reyes said the ICI “hears the clamor of the Filipino people for more transparency.”
The commission has conducted all hearings behind closed doors since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. created it on September 11.
No target date has been set for the start of livestreaming.