US envoy visits ICI to ask about flood control probe
MANILA, Philippines — A senior United States Embassy official met with the Independent Commission on Infrastructure Friday, October 17, to ask about its mandate and functions, particularly in uncovering corruption in anomalous flood control and other infrastructure projects.
Michael Kelleher, acting deputy chief of mission at the US embassy, visited the ICI headquarters in Taguig Friday afternoon for a "getting to know" talk, ICI Executive Director Brian Hosaka told reporters at a press conference.
"They were very much interested in what the ICI will do to address the problem on the flood control projects and other anomalous infrastructure projects," Hosaka told reporters. "They wanted to know what have we done, what we will be doing."
Asked why the US would be interested, Hosaka said corruption concerns anyone with commercial interests in the Philippines. "I believe anybody would be interested in any corruption issue regardless of whether or not you're a Filipino, or you're a foreigner, because they are partners."
"They have commercial interests. So naturally, they would want to know what the ICI will be doing as far as these projects are concerned," Hosaka said.
There was no offer of US assistance, Hosaka said.
The ICI is currently investigating some 421 non-existent projects that were included in the national budget in past years — the type called "ghost" projects — while working to review a massive inventory of 238,200 infrastructure projects from the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The massive number of projects up for review has required the ICI to divide its work to "fit the current capacity," Hosaka said.
"So now we are getting more capacitated, meaning more and more people, more systems, more direction of the investigation of the ICI, we will gradually achieve what we need to do," Hosaka said.
Yesterday, the ICI met with government agencies to plan its next steps in recovering assets from personalities involved in the current flood control scandal.
A rough estimate of how much can be recovered, according to Hosaka, is based on how much the Anti-Money Laundering Council has frozen in relation to the investigations: P5 billion in approximately 2,800 accounts.
"As we go along, it's going to be bigger," Hosaka said.
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