‘POLITICAL DEMOLITION’: ICDEO hits legality, motive of City Council’s waterway probe

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The Iloilo City District Engineering Office (ICDEO) criticized the City Council’s move to conduct a legislative inquiry into its projects along rivers, creeks, and waterways, calling the action legally questionable and politically motivated.

The inquiry stems from Sangguniang Panlungsod Resolution No. 2025-735, passed July 30, which seeks an investigation in aid of legislation into such projects.

A quad committee hearing is set for Monday, Aug. 11, with the Committee on Public Services, Environmental Protection and Ecology, chaired by Councilor Romel Duron, serving as the lead body.

In an Aug. 8 letter, ICDEO officer-in-charge Roy Pacanan argued that the power to investigate in aid of legislation is granted only to the Senate and House of Representatives under the 1987 Constitution.

He added that Article 458 of the Local Government Code contains no provision explicitly granting the City Council similar authority.

Pacanan also noted the absence of any proposed ordinance tied to the inquiry, saying the Council should instead review and align the city’s Flood Control Master Plan with the Department of Public Works and Highways.

“Ironically, the Sanggunian seems to have overlooked the fact that ‘investigation in aid of legislation’ necessarily requires a need to improve an existing ordinance or enact new or remedial legislation,” he said.

If the resolution was prompted by a privilege speech by Councilor Rex Sarabia, Pacanan said the ICDEO had already addressed what it called “malicious accusations” about its role in recent flooding.

“It is reasonably expected that [Sarabia] should have verified the facts and cease cherry-picking facts for political purposes,” he said.

The ICDEO has emphasized that its projects are not responsible for flooding and related fatalities in areas linked by the city government to its works.

The agency accused the City Council of “prematurely drawing a conclusion” of fault before the start of any inquiry, branding the investigation as “in aid of political demolition.”

Pacanan also noted that Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu had withdrawn a cease-and-desist order (CDO) against the agency’s projects after ICDEO pointed out that local governments cannot stop national government projects.

In lifting the CDO, Treñas-Chu did not address questions on its legality, instead noting redundancies in enforcement and citing an agreement with Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan to conduct a third-party study on the projects.

Treñas-Chu also said Bonoan ordered the suspension of ICDEO waterway projects pending the results of the independent assessment.

Pacanan claimed some barangay officials had submitted “strikingly similar” letters aligning with the city’s position.

“We are exploring all available legal remedies to respond accordingly to these improper, unreasonable, unfair, oppressive, and discriminatory imputations and arbitrary ascertainment of facts,” he said.

ICDEO maintained that flooding in areas such as Tagbak, Jaro, is a decades-old problem caused by multiple private developments and the city’s low-lying geography, not by its infrastructure projects.

“Regrettably, such facts appear to have fallen on deaf ears,” Pacanan said.

He stressed that while his office is open to constructive discourse, the “bias and antagonism” of the City Council members and Treñas-Chu had prompted the agency to elevate the matter to its central office for guidance.

“Lest it be forgotten, false accusations are far from inconsequential. Such statements do not fall into a void; rather, they carry with them serious legal implications,” he said.