Malacañang on Wednesday expressed support for religious sect Iglesia ni Cristo’s (INC) call for transparency in the Independent Commission for Infrastructure’s (ICI) ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in flood control projects.
At a briefing, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also supports transparency in the probe – a position she said the President has consistently emphasized since the creation of the super body.
‘The President, in all instances, wants transparency. In every investigation, there should be transparency – nothing should be concealed,’ she said speaking in Filipino.
‘But how the ICI will implement this – how it will make the proceedings public, ensure transparency, and to what extent – that depends on the ICI. Still, the President continues to advocate transparency in all investigations,’ Castro added in Filipino.
These remarks followed INC Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo’s appeal for the ICI to be transparent not only with its findings but also with the process of its investigation.
‘The investigation should be open and should be witnessed by the public. We believe that in order to achieve peace, we need to continuously investigate these anomalies, and these should be done with transparency and without favor,’ Manalo said in a statement, as read by INC spokesman Edwil Zabala on Net25.
In addition, the INC leader urged the Senate to continue its probe into the alleged anomalous flood control projects.
‘As is appropriate, the root cause of the theft of hundreds of billions of pesos from the public treasury must be held accountable even during times of hardship for the people. This is to ensure justice and hopefully prevent others from following suit. This, however, cannot be attained if the Senate investigation is stopped like what we’ve been hearing due to unclear reasons,’ Manalo said.
This was in relation to Sen.Panfilo Lacson’s announcement that the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on alleged flood control anomalies set for Wednesday is postponed ‘until further notice’ due to the unavailability of documents needed within a week.