00:00As of yesterday, this is the way the commission is going to be organized.
00:08Justice Andy Reyes will be the chairperson of the ICI.
00:16He was a presiding judge of the Court of Appeals before.
00:20He has been a jurist for a very, very long time with a very good record of honesty,
00:30and fairness, and a good record of being able to find justice for those who have been victimized.
00:40Yun na ngayon ang ating sitwasyon.
00:45We are, I'm very encouraged because nung nakausap ko sila,
00:51all of them are in agreement that we have to move very quickly,
00:56and we have to get something done as quickly as possible.
01:01Hindi pwedeng mapanis lahat nitong information na binigay ng taong bayan doon sa isumbong mo sa Pangulo.
01:08Kaya patuloy, sabi namin, eh, bilisan na lang talaga ninyo.
01:13And that's why they have to meet as often as possible.
01:19That is for them to decide.
01:20They have already decided to meet today to make the organizational decisions that need to be made,
01:27i.e., how the secretariat is going to be organized,
01:32what sort of people they need to bring that, where their offices will be,
01:38kahit yung mga forms na gagawin para doon sa commission,
01:43they have to set that.
01:44And when asked, when asked how often you plan on meeting,
01:51ang sagot sa akin, araw-araw, they will meet every day.
01:57And either privately or they will hold some,
02:01I don't know if they plan to hold hearings in public,
02:04it's all up to them.
02:05What I want to stress here is that the independent nature of this commission,
02:12hindi kami makikialam sa trabaho nila.
02:16We will, of course, be in discussion with them.
02:18They will be, we will ask them,
02:20ano na nangyari, what have you found, what are we doing next, et cetera.
02:23But we're not about to direct them as to how they are going to,
02:28they are going to conduct their investigations.
02:31And we are going to leave it up to them.
02:33As a matter of fact, in our discussions with them,
02:37they also said, may we make suggestions,
02:40may we make proposals,
02:42so as to the procedure for bidding for all these contracts,
02:47para hindi na maulit ito.
02:49And of course, I said, we're perfectly open to that.
02:52What we really want is to fix the system.
02:56I was very encouraged because in my meetings with Justice Andy yesterday,
03:01I said, you know, this has to be, we have to make it nothing less than a turning point
03:08in the conduct of governance in the Philippines.
03:12We have to make a change.
03:15And it is a fundamental change in the way that we do business.
03:20Good morning, Mr. President.
03:22Sir, in terms of priorities and focus,
03:25how different would the investigation of your independent panel be compared to what we've seen in the House and in the Senate?
03:33It will be completely independent.
03:35That's something that cannot be said if, for example,
03:40the Senate conducts, well,
03:42maraming nababanggit na senador.
03:45If the House conducts the investigation,
03:49maraming nababanggit na congressman.
03:53Kaya at sinasabi ng mga tao,
03:56bakit naman nag-iimbestiga sila,
03:58but they're investigating themselves,
04:00which is always a little bit of a difficult situation.
04:04It's hard to be fair.
04:07But they are, of course, as I said before,
04:10it's their prerogative to conduct such investigations.
04:14However, so as to make it very, very clear to people
04:17that this is independent.
04:20I would like to stress this over and over again.
04:22It is an independent commission,
04:25and that is why we have taken great pains
04:28to make sure that that independence is respected,
04:33is recognized, and is observed.
04:35And that's what we plan to do.
04:37And that's the difference,
04:39is that we can say, at least this commission can say,
04:42they have no ties to any part of government.
04:47If you look, they are all out of government.
04:51They are all personalities who are out of government,
04:54except for Mayor Benji Magalong.
04:58And the reason he became a special advisor
05:02is because he would have had to give up his mayorship
05:07to take on this position.
05:12So he chose to keep his mayorship.
05:15I don't blame him.
05:17But nonetheless, we can use his talents.
05:20But that is the specific, that is for us,
05:25the differences that we can point to,
05:28to show that it is, in fact, independent.
05:30Good morning, sir.
05:31Can you tell us more, sir,
05:34about the selection process of the ICI?
05:37Were there others po ba that,
05:39who were considered to join the commission?
05:42The, the, it wasn't,
05:44we opened the process to people.
05:48We said that we are need,
05:49we need independent people to,
05:51to, to, to man,
05:53or to occupy the positions in the commission.
05:56And so that's what we tried to do.
06:00And many, we, we, we,
06:02we contacted many people
06:04and see if they, saw if they were willing.
06:07But they, essentially what we needed,
06:10what we needed was somebody like
06:12Justice Andy Reyes,
06:16because he is a, he is a former justice.
06:19And he will know how to conduct those hearings,
06:23procedures so that they are legally correct,
06:25procedurally correct.
06:28And then, Babe Singson,
06:30I think is an obvious choice also,
06:32because this is a former DPWH secretary.
06:36And we, also, of course,
06:39a lot of this, a lot of the work
06:41will be on, an accounting job,
06:46forensic accounting.
06:48So, of course, the expert,
06:50Rosanna Fajardo from the SGV,
06:52will be able to provide that expertise.
06:55So, I think we've covered
06:56all of the important areas
06:57that need to be handled.
07:00Beyond that,
07:01I cannot tell you
07:04how the commission will organize itself.
07:07I cannot tell you
07:08what the secretariat will look like.
07:11And the reason I cannot tell you
07:12is that it is not my,
07:14these are not my decisions to make anymore.
07:16Those decisions will be made
07:18by the commission.
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