Activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) denounced on Tuesday the newly appointed Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) Special Adviser Rodolfo Azurin for ‘lecturing citizens’ protesting against corruption.
Bayan advised Azurin, who previously served as the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), to focus instead on ‘those who stole public funds.’
‘ICI new special adviser Rodolfo Azurin should focus on running after those who stole public funds instead of lecturing citizens and flood victims about how to express our outrage against large-scale corruption. Those who act against corruption are being criticized, not those who commit corruption,’ Bayan’s statement read in part.
During his inaugural speech on Monday, Azurin said ‘real change can’t be achieved through division, chaos, or violence,’ and that revolutions ‘do not always heal a nation, as seen in our history.’
Additionally, Azurin said in his speech that amid the alleged corruption in the country, citizens must ‘stand together not through protests or rallies, but through truth, unity and justice.’
With this, Bayan claimed that Azurin sees the outrage against abuse of power as a bigger problem than impunity in government.
‘He could only see ‘division, chaos or violence’ in protests but not the pursuit of accountability and justice. He belittled the value of protesting while harping on the idea of unity, the same meaningless slogan of the Marcos-Duterte tandem that rose to power in 2022,’ Bayan said.
The group also questioned the credibility of the ICI, noting that it has yet to declare a probe into Malacañang and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and open its investigation to the public.
‘It seems the real mission of the ICI is to douse cold water on the growing discontent against corruption and impunity, and prevent the people from demanding accountability against Marcos Jr, who bears principal responsibility for the flood control controversy and overall infrastructure corruption,’ Bayan added.
On September 29, Marcos named the former PNP chief as the new special adviser of the ICI following the resignation of Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong from the post.
Azurin had insisted that he would ‘definitely not allow’ having ‘sacred areas’ that the ICI could not probe, stating that the ICI would ‘investigate everything.’ /jpv