ICI asks Mark Villar to attend next hearing
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) has formally invited former Public Works Secretary and now Sen. Mark Villar to attend its next hearing on flood control project anomalies.
ICI chair Andres Reyes requested Villar to appear before the body in Taguig City at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct 7.
The former Supreme Court justice told the senator that he would be asked “to testify under oath to discuss and shed light relative to the planning, budgeting, execution, supervision, and monitoring of flood control and other infrastructure projects under your jurisdiction during your tenure as Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which is the subject matter under inquiry/ investigation by the Commission.”
Villar headed the DPWH from 2016 to 2021, during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
‘Feelers’
On Wednesday, ICI executive director Brian Keith Hosaka said in a chance interview that Villar, as well as former Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, and recently resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, would be summoned to attend the next hearings.
The Senate blue ribbon committee chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson also has an ongoing probe of flood control projects.
It has so far heard from Villar’s successor, former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, and from other department officials who had served during Bonoan’s term.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday said he had received “feelers” from the Villar family a day after he confirmed they were also being investigated for possible “prohibited interest” in government infrastructure projects.
“There was an effort to set the meeting, but I haven’t responded yet. Because I’d rather it be done officially … Transparently and officially across the board, so there won’t be any ‘he said, she said,’” Remulla told reporters.
‘Nothing to hide’
Earlier on Wednesday, the justice secretary said the Department of Justice was also investigating the Villar family, beginning with Senator Villar, over media reports citing their relations to a contractor that secured P18.5 billion worth of projects in Las Piñas City, the family’s bailiwick.
Villar on Thursday said he welcomed the investigation mentioned by Remulla as well as that being conducted by the ICI, stessing he had “nothing to hide and believe[s] firmly in accountability and due process.”
In a statement, Villar maintained he had no direct or indirect ownership or controlling interest in any company participating in DPWH projects.
“The official record will confirm that none of my relatives acquired any contracts from 2016 to 2021,” said Villar, whose sister Camille is also an incumbent senator and whose parents Manny and Cynthia are former senators. —WITH REPORTS FROM JANE BAUTISTA AND CHARIE ABARCA
