The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) is targeting to file at least 15 cases before the Ombudsman against individuals involved in the anomalous flood control projects.

Just last week the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) submitted an initial report to ICI regarding the 421 identified ghost project from the total of 8,000 projects that were validated by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev).

In a press conference, ICI special adviser Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said the commission will conduct a technical validation of the 421 ghost projects before a case build up will be done for the filing of the case before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Azurin explained that the technical validation will be done by engineers while the case build up will be conducted by the investigators of the government like those who are from Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

"We are trying to look at least between now up to the 3rd to 4th week from now, we are looking for at least 15 cases to be filed and then after that it will continue because the validation of suspected ghost projects is still ongoing," he said.

"Our engineers will conduct a technical evaluation on the 421 projects. We are hoping that everyone will cooperate so we can hit our target timeline.

According to the ICI, the commission is going to look into a total of 238,000 infrastructure projects in the country from 2016 to 2025. Of which the DPWH initially validated 8,000 projects where 421 were suspected to be ghost flood control projects. Robina Asido/DMS