First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos will also be invited by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) if there is a ‘reliable’ and ‘competent’ basis to do so, according to the commission’s executive director, Brian Keith Hosaka.
The ICI made the statement after a private citizen named John Santander on Tuesday morning submitted a letter of sentiment, urging ICI to investigate the alleged connection between Marcos and Maynard Ngu, the tech billionaire behind Cherry Mobile, whom some sectors have linked to the widening flood-control controversy.
‘If there’s any reliable and competent basis for the commission to invite any personality, as I said before, that would lead to finding the truth, so we can know what the truth really is,’ Hosaka emphasized in a press briefing on Tuesday.
‘But of course, we have to validate this. They will be invited upon their discretion,’ he noted.
‘We are being consistent here. We go where the evidence takes us,’ he further said.
Meanwhile, the ICI executive director clarified that ‘it’s too early to tell’ or confirm that Marcos would be invited since the commission has yet to review the letter of sentiment from Santander.
‘We are very careful here. As I said, the commission will really look into whether there is any basis for those allegations. We are careful,’ he said.
Based on the letter of sentiment of Santander, he showed two photos showing Marcos and Ngu together and alleged that there is a ‘possibility’ that the first lady also ‘benefited’ from Ngu or vice versa.
Ngu was recently tagged as the alleged bagman of Sen. Francis Escudero, one of the lawmakers implicated in the anomalies. /apl