“Despite the public’s desire for bombshell information about the scandal, let’s all try to be patient and not assume for the worst”
THE name of the game right now with regard to all the flood control scandal investigations, is transparency.
The public wants an open investigation so they can judge for themselves whether or not there will be any attempts to railroad the conduct of the investigation.
That is how far the public mistrust on the government has become.
Many cause-oriented groups and the media monitoring the many inquiries are demanding the ICI open the investigation to the public.
They believe the ICI is being unreasonably secretive with its investigations. There is even no available spokesperson to explain to the media what has transpired during a particular session without necessarily divulging any confidential details.
Whatever information comes out after a particular session is left to the invited resource persons if he wants to explain to the media what he or she wants to divulge which predictably will not satisfy the inquisitive media or a public hungry for information.
So, what could be the reason of the ICI for this extreme secrecy?
To venture an educated guess, wanting to be fair could be one of the reasons.
Perhaps, the ICI, realizing what is at stake in the investigations, wants to be extremely careful so as not to expose those being interviewed to a trial by publicity as the committee has stated which has happened in controversial cases in the past.
There is no denying that the outcomes of such cases in the past were driven by public passion and media frenzy or overzealousness.
Another reason could be that the ICI committee members do not like the investigations to be personality driven wherein the committee members become bigger than the issue being investigated.
They may simply want that whoever will be charged will be solely based on the evidence and not personal ambition or the desire of some elements in society.
The public should also remember that under our judicial system, no matter how some of the characters in this drama have been portrayed by the media as guilty already even before any trial has been concluded, they are still all considered innocent until pronounced guilty in a court of law.
One plus factor on ICI’s part is that the members have been avoiding the limelight.
It is very seldom that any of them have given any media interviews.
In the one time General Rodolfo Azurin Jr., the new committee adviser and investigator issued a short statement, was in an ambush interview by the media. This is in contrast to his predecessor who gave many interviews while the investigation was still going on.
In fact, the committee is so circumspect that when a leader of a cause-oriented group said in an interview the ICI should at least mention whether a project is anomalous, the committee did not respond.
This is because no conclusions should be made until a case has been filed in court or referred to the Office of the Ombudsman.
The issue of transparency is quite understandable.
But since this scandal will result in people losing everything including their liberty for the rest of their lives, it is paramount that fairness is not sacrificed.
The ICI should therefore stand firm on its decision because, after everything is said and done, the ICI investigations will be judged solely on the results of the inquiries conducted.
Perhaps what the ICI can do if it is not doing it already is to video all proceedings as part of its official records so that if there will be questions of any nature later on, the video recordings can be made available for reference.
Another that the ICI should perhaps consider is the appointment of a spokesperson to provide some allowable information to a public hungry for information.
So far however, the conduct of the Committee has been judicious and in accordance to its mandate.
Despite the public’s desire for bombshell information about the scandal, let’s all try to be patient and not assume for the worst.
The ICI at least deserves that.
Let’s wait for the investigations to run its course and then judge the ICI on the basis of the charges they will eventually refer to the Ombudsman or file in court.
