BUDGET Secretary Amenah Pangandaman yesterday said the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) will need an initial budget of P21 million for personnel services, including the salaries and benefits of the chairman, panel members and their staff.
Pangadaman, in an interview at the sidelines of the Government-Owned or Controlled Corporation (GOCC) Day held in Malacañang, said she and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin have agreed to charge the funding requirement from the budget of the Office of the President (OP).
She said they have yet to determine how much the ICI would need for its investigation, but based on their initial computation, it would need at least P21 million for personnel services, which would include the salaries and benefits of the chairman, ICI panel members and their staff or employees.
She said they would have the specifics once they talk with the ICI executive director, whom Palace press officer Claire Castro said would likely be named this week.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said the ICI has buckled down to work and met at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) yesterday.
However, it did not give any details as to what happened during the first meeting of the ICI members.
ICI chairman Andres Reyes Jr., and members Rogelio “Babes” Singson and Rossana Fajardo took their oath on Monday, while Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who has been named as special adviser and investigator, witnessed the event.
The ICI was created under Executive Order No. 94 to investigate not only corruption in flood control projects but also in all national government infrastructure works over the past 10 years.
Pangandaman said that if the OP budget could not fund the budgetary requirements of the ICI, the funding would be taken from the contingency funds.
“Kung kaya pa sa budget nila, they will provide this. Pero ‘pag hindi na kaya, they will request from us. So icha-charge natin ito sa contingent fund for the MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenses) and capital outlets for their operations (If their [OP]budget could still accommodate it, they will provide this. But they will request it from us if they can’t. So, we will charge it to the contingent fund for the MOOE and capital outlets for their (ICI) operations),” she said.
Pangandaman assured the public that the shelved 2026 budget for flood-control projects will not be reallocated to the ICI.
‘TOO SLOW’
Vice President Sara Duterte yesterday slammed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the way he is handling the flood control issue, saying he should have immediately acted on his own, even without creating the ICI.
“Actually, hindi na nga siya (it’s not only) little too late, nothing na nga siya, nothing less ang ginagawa niya (it’s nothing, he’s doing nothing less),” she told reporters after the budget hearing on the Office of the Vice President’s proposed P902.8 billion budget for 2026.
She laughed off Marcos’ creation of the ICI, saying there is no need for it because the President, himself, has all the powers to go after erring government officials.
“So, ano pang commission, anong truth commission, ano pa ‘yung investigative body na kailangan mo? Nandiyan na ‘yung budget, nakikita natin kung paano siya kinuha (So, what commission, what truth commission, what investigative body do you need? The budget is there, we’re seeing how the budget is being stolen,” she said.
“Hindi niya (Marcos) alam kung ano ang gagawin. Masyado siyang mabagal gumalaw. Nagmamadali ang Pilipinas e (He doesn’t know what to do. He’s too slow to act. The Philippines wants quick action),” she also said.
She added: “Presidente ka tapos nakikita mo na based on the budget, paano binaboy ‘yun pera ng bayan. Mag-aantay ka pa ba ng commission o ng truth commission o kung ano mang komisyon ‘yan. Aaksyunan mo kasi kaagad dapat yan e (You’re the president and based on the budget, you see how the people’s funds are being wasted. Will you wait for a commission, a truth commission or whatever commission that is? You need to act on it right away).”
Contractor Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya, who earlier accused congressmen and senators of pocketing kickbacks from flood control projects, earlier admitted that she started cornering government contracts in 2016, during the administration of the Vice President’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The younger Duterte said Marcos should just ask his cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez to step down.
“Ikaw ba president ka, ilalagay mo pa ba iyang ganyan klaseng Speaker? Siyempre hindi na. So ano nangyari sa budget natin? (If you were the president, would you choose that kind of Speaker? Of course not. So what happened to our budget?” she said.
BRIBERY
Meanwhile, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste has added two contractors to the bribery complaint he filed against former Batangas First District Engineer Abelardo Calalo.
Leviste on Monday filed a reply affidavit with a supplemental complaint-affidavit before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Batangas against Elrey Jose Noche and Marciana Noche, owners of TopTech Trading & Construction Co., Inc.
He refuted the claim of Calalo that the P3.1 million that was seized from him during his arrest last month was not bribe money for the congressman but a “donation” from a private contractor from whom he had solicited funds for the lawmaker’s projects.
Leviste insisted that the cash amounts that Calalo tried to give him were bribe money from the three DPWH contracts won by TopTech Trading & Construction, the contractor of the DPWH projects listed on the piece of paper accompanying the cash brought by Calalo.
The neophyte lawmaker last month charged Calalo for allegedly trying to bribe him in exchange for stopping the congressman’s investigation into the anomalies hounding infrastructure projects in his district.
In his counter-affidavit, Calalo, who has been arrested in an entrapment operation, has claimed that he solicited the money for Leviste’s projects allegedly upon the “explicit instructions” of Rep. Jojo Ang (PL, Uswag Ilonggo).
Leviste, however, insisted that what Calalo referred to as a “donation” included a piece of paper that said the P3,126,900.00 cash, which was three percent of the P104,230,000.00 price of the three contracts awarded by the DPWH to TopTech.
“This company is owned by Elrey Jose C. Noche and Marciana M. Noche, whom I have asked the Prosecutor to implead as additional respondents and to issue subpoenas requiring them to appear and submit their counter-affidavits,” he said.
Leviste had also earlier named his predecessor, former Batangas Rep. Eric Buhain, as the alleged “big fish” in the supposed corruption of public works funds in his district based on the information shared with him by Calalo.
Buhain, who is the husband of former Rep. Eileen Ermita, lost to Leviste in the midterm elections last May. – With Wendell Vigilia
