President Marcos said that the newly-formed Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) wants to get something done as quickly as possible and agreed to meet daily.

Marcos said the commission intends to fast-track its probe into anomalous flood control projects so as not to waste the information reported by Filipinos through the Sumbong sa Pangulo website.

"I’m very encouraged because when I spoke to them, all of them are in agreement that we have to move very quickly and we have to get something done as quickly as possible," Marcos said in a press conference in Malacañan on Monday, Sept. 15.

"Hindi puwedeng mapanis lahat itong information na binigay ng taumbayan doon sa Isumbong Mo sa Pangulo. Kaya’t sabi namin, e, bilisan na lang talaga ninyo (All this information given by the people through ‘Isumbong Mo sa Pangulo’ cannot just be wasted. That’s why we said, you really have to speed it up)," Marcos added.

During the briefing, the President announced the formal organization of the ICI, headed by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Andres Reyes, with former Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and SGV & Co. managing partner Rossana Fajardo as members.

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong was also tapped as special adviser who will act as investigator into questionable flood control projects.

Marcos said the commission will have to meet as often as possible for them to further organize the team and start with the investigation.

"[T]hey have already decided to meet today to make the organizational decisions that need to be made i.e., how the secretariat is going to be organized, what sort of people they need to bring that, where their offices will be, kahit iyong mga forms na gagawin para doon sa (even the forms that must be done for the) commission, they have to set that," the President said.

"[T[hey will meet every day either privately or they will hold some—I don’t know if they plan to hold hearings in public, it is all up to them," he added.

The commission, the Chief Executive further said, is also bent on coming up with proposals to the procedure for bidding for all contracts in an attempt to prevent the flood control mess from happening again in the future.

Marcos also explained why the scope of the investigation would only be within the last 10 years.

"The answer is two-fold, the practical answer is this: COA (Commission on Audit)  is only required to keep records for 10 years," he said.

The second reason, the President added, is to determine how the systemic corruption started.

"Pangalawa doon kaya we’ll do it for as long as possible dahil marami na tayong napag-usapan at isa sa napakahalaga para sa akin ay malaman paano tayo napunta sa ganito? Bakit nagkaganito iyong gobyerno natin? Papaano nangyari ito na ganito iyong naging bidding? Papaano nangyari na ganito ang naging pagbigay ng kontrata? (Secondly, that is why we will do it for as long as possible, because we have already discussed so many things, and one of the most important for me is to find out: how did we end up like this? Why did our government come to this? How did it happen that the bidding turned out this way? How did it happen that the awarding of contracts was done like this)? How did this evolve?" he said.

Marcos also underscored that the Palace will not interfere with the Commission’s work, highlighting its independence.

"What I want to stress here is that the independent nature of this commission. Hindi kami makikialam sa trabaho nila (We will not meddle with their job). We will, of course, be in discussion with them. We will ask them ano na nangyari, what have you found, what are we doing next, et cetera. But we are not about to direct them as to how they were going to conduct their investigations and we are going to leave it up to them," he said.