Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson explained that his earlier statement that almost all senators in the 19th Congress made at least P100 billion worth of insertions in the 2025 budget was not meant to put his colleagues or the entire Senate on the spot.
Lacson on Tuesday disclosed that at a caucus on Monday, some of his peers expressed concerns that his remarks about budget insertions could affect the whole institution.
‘I can actually feel and understand completely the sentiments expressed by my colleagues, at least the members of the majority bloc during our majority caucus yesterday, so I explained to them that the mention of ‘almost all senators’ was not intended to put them or the whole Senate on the spot, nor did I have the intention of calling them out particularly,’ he said.
‘The overarching reason for my disclosure or revelation was to point out that we must accept the fact that we are all in crisis owing to the recent anomalies involving the substandard and even ghost flood control projects unearthed in the course of the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings and other similar investigations,’ the senator added.
As chairman of the blue ribbon committee, Lacson is leading its probe into anomalous flood control projects.
Several lawmakers, including Sens. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Joel Villanueva, former House Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and now resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, have been accused of receiving kickbacks from either substandard or non-existent flood control works.
They all denied the allegations.
Lacson expressed hopes his fellow senators would take his recent remarks about budget insertions as a wake-up call.
The clear and overarching message, he said, is to avoid or at least minimize the mangling of the national budget bill especially if it means taking away funds from vetted projects – particularly foreign-assisted ones – in favor of pet projects.
‘This is not about individual senators or congressmen. This is about all of us – a reminder that we must be transparent in doing our jobs because the people are watching us,’ he said in Filipino when interviewed over Net25.
Lacson also reiterated that ‘insertion per se is not illegal.’
‘An insertion – that’s also called an amendment-an amendment is part of our constitutional mandate, because we hold the power of the purse,’ he explained.
He said they would be remiss in their constitutional duty if they would not review or introduce amendments to the National Expenditure Program or the President’s budget.