Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman and Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has clarified the circulating photo of him with couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya, which was recently made public by Cavite 4th District Rep. Kiko Barzaga.
The image was posted on Barzaga’s Facebook page on Tuesday, September 30, with the caption: “[P]lease investigate the validity of this image of Senator Lacson’s private meeting with the Discayas.”
In an interview, Lacson explained that the photo was taken back in April 2025, just before the end of the 90-day campaign period for the midterm elections.
“The photo was taken sometime in the last week of April when the 90-day campaign period for the 2025 midterm elections was about to end,” Lacson said.
He explained that a campaign supporter from Davao City, Fred Villaroman—whose late father, PBGen Francisco Villaroman, once served under him in the PNP and also headed the security detail of then-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte—brought the Discaya son to his office in Taguig to extend an invitation.
“A campaign supporter from Davao City, Mr Fred Villaroman… brought the Discaya son to my office in Taguig City to invite me to attend what they described as a grand rally in one of the Davao provinces,” the senator recalled.
Lacson noted that the younger Discaya was a nominee of a party-list group, Ako Pinoy or Ako’y Pinoy, which was contesting a congressional seat.
He further explained that while Mr. and Mrs. Discaya eventually joined the meeting, he declined their invitation out of respect for his friend and ally Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto, whose nephew, Mayor Vico Sotto, was then running against Sarah Discaya for mayor of Pasig City.
“They were later joined by Mr & Mrs Discaya. Anyway, I begged off—first, out of respect for my friend SP Tito Sotto whose nephew, Mayor Vico Sotto, was running against Mrs Discaya for the mayorship of Pasig City, and second, there were other party-list groups who were including my name in their sample ballots and I thought it was not a smart political decision to join a rally of any party-list group,” Lacson explained.
He stressed that the encounter was the first and only time he had interacted with the Discayas outside of the Senate Blue Ribbon hearings on anomalous flood-control projects.