THE resignation this week of former Public Works secretary Rogelio Singson from the three-member Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) has been read differently from dissimilar angles.
Understandably, even as they are looking at the same development, preceded two months back by the resignation from the ICI of incumbent Baguio City mayor Benjie Magalong as special adviser, eventually replaced by former PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin.
First off, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. established on Sept. 11, 2025, the ICI through Executive Order 94, with three members to investigate irregularities in flood control projects and all national government infrastructure works throughout the years he highlighted in his fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28.
The ICI is headed by retired Supreme Court justice Andres B. Reyes Jr. (chairperson); with Singson, and Rossana A. Fajardo, country managing partner at SGV & Co. as members.
Azurin has since replaced Magalong as the Special Adviser and Investigator.
Given the resignations there is need to read the fine print, even as we must exert efforts to read between the lines and try to construe their statements, in fairness to them and what might be ignored as some grain of truth.
Given the credentials of Singson as DPWH secretary in an earlier administration, his resignation is definitely more than a ripple, where many are seeing perhaps ignoble political shadows.
Let’s get it straight from the 77-year-old Singson, whose resignation he said was up to Dec. 15 and may be extended up to yearend, a span that has been ignored by patellar reflexes in many political analyses.
Singson said “We were asked to go to war without the necessary ammunition,” adding health issues prompted his resignation from the ICI, rejecting insinuations of supposed interference from Malacanang.
“I myself have not talked to anyone in the Palace. I have not talked to the president about the ICI work… As I keep saying to everyone, we will go where the evidence leads us,” Singson said in an interview heard nationwide.
Singson, who was prescribed for the first time medication for high blood pressure, cholesterol and uric acid, added: “Nobody pressured me to leave and I’m not under the gun to leave or because there are certain things that I want to do that I cannot do – that’s not true.”
“I’ve never had maintenance medication until I stepped into ICI,” he said, emphasizing his ICI work required him to review numerous documents and do legal research.
But we need to lend an ear to what he said should be his possible replacement: “best to have a lawyer, a certified public accountant with a track record in prosecution.”
To give Singson a fair shake, we need to review unreasonable theories in face of his health complaints he called red flags, and await, as we must, the results of ICI investigations which are chasing evidence beyond allegations and accusations.
