Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) Chair Andres Reyes stated that the commission must first establish procedure rules and parameters before holding live hearings.
In a statement on Thursday, Reyes mentioned that the commission currently lacks rules to proceed with livestreaming.
“We will try our best to be able to full blast investigation of all this fraud. We don’t have the facility, we don’t have the rules of procedure, but we will already shorten the procedure in spite of no rules allowing us, we will now go on livestream next week once we get to be able to have the technical capability with us already,” he said.
Reyes also noted that the ICI needs to carefully draft guidelines for livestreaming to balance transparency with the protection of sensitive information and the constitutional rights of resource persons.
“Before we do so [livestreaming], the ICI would need to study and draft the rules of procedure and parameters to allow for live streaming, taking into consideration sensitive information and the Constitutional rights of invited resource persons,” he added.
Last month, ICI executive director Brian Keith Hosaka said that the commission’s hearings would not be livestreamed to prevent ‘trial by publicity’ and mitigate any potential political influence.
However, the Commission reconsidered its earlier position amid public calls for greater transparency in the probe into anomalies in the government’s flood control projects.
