Tovic Salvador

Article (news)

Salve Ibaňez

Jessica Fenol

ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Economist and former Finance Undersecretary Cielo Magno said on Wednesday that the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), created to probe the anomalies in flood control projects, lacks authority and power to go after those involved. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr earlier ordered the creation of the ICI. Marcos appointed former Supreme Court Justice Andres Reyes as the head, as well as former Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson and SGV Country Managing Partner Rossana Fajardo as members. Magno said the creation of the commission is the first step but there should be laws filed to create a &quot;real independent commission.&quot; &quot;I also think the president should support the bills that are filed to create a real independent Commission, an independent commission that has authority, power, to go after the people that are responsible for corruption because right now the Independent Commission that was created only has recommendatory power,&quot; Magno said. &quot;So whether this investigation, whatever they&#x27;re gonna find, whether the agencies will act on them or not, will depend on the agency. So for me, it&#x27;s good, but not good enough to go after the corrupt individuals involved in this flood control mess,&quot; she added. On Tuesday, the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Department of Public Works and Highways have announced that over 135 accounts have been frozen in relation to the investigation. Magno said freezing the assets of those linked to the controversy is crucial, but the government must also look into reviewing the mandate of the Anti-Money Laundering Council or AMLC to make it more powerful in terms of monitoring financial transactions. &quot;What is happening is I&#x27;m being reactionary, right? Just reacting to issues of corruption. What we want is a preventive mechanism. Where AMLC actually monitors financial transactions and already raise and act on transactions that are irregular,&quot; she said. AMLC Chair and BSP Governor Eli Remolona earlier said the agency has been looking at several <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/8/29/amlc-looking-into-names-in-anomalous-infra-projects…" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">suspicious</a> activities linked to the flood control mess.What&#x27;s worrying, Magno said, is that the public remains the victim of this vicious cycle of corruption. &quot;It means that it&#x27;s not only that we didn&#x27;t learn from the past, we did not put sufficient policies. We did not strengthen our institution  to prevent this from happening,&quot; she said. &quot;We are seeing that the quality of life of the Filipinos have not really improved over the years, so we are talking of Filipinos continuously paying taxes and continue to suffer from the substandard services and projects of the government is providing,&quot; she said. Magno also said the government must keep its policies updated in order to &quot;catch up&quot; and improve its capacity in monitoring financial transactions. Especially since the Philippines had just been removed from the Financial Action Task Force&#x27;s or FATF grey list in February this year. Countries under the grey list are under increased monitoring due to deficiencies in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, among others.

UP Prof. Cielo Magno said the creation of the ICI is the first step but there should be laws filed to create a "real independent commission."

UP Prof. Cielo Magno said the creation of the ICI is the first step but there should be laws filed to create a "real independent commission."

Independent infra body 'not good enough' says economist

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Independent infra body 'not good enough' says economist

Salve Ibaňez,

Jessica Fenol,

ABS-CBN News

Published September 17, 2025 04:25 PM PHT

Read More:

Independent Commission for Infrastructure

ICI

flood control

Cielo Magno

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