Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has urged Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Leviste to clarify that senators elected in May 2025 were not involved in alleged budget insertions in the current Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget.
Leviste said former Public Works Undersecretary Catalina Cabral had given him files purportedly listing officials behind flood control project insertions, noting that all senators were included, including his mother, Senator Loren Legarda, who denied knowledge of such allocations allegedly totaling ₱120 billion.
Lacson, elected under the 20th Congress, stressed that the current budget was passed by the 19th Congress in December 2024.
“Congressman Leviste should at least qualify his statement with the phrase ‘in the 19th Congress’ in fairness to the new members of the 20th Congress, including myself and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, among others,” Lacson said.
“That said, even during the previous Congresses, I never partook of allocables or pork barrel allocations, or whatever names they were called,” he added.
Lacson, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that investigated the alleged flood control anomalies, welcomed Leviste’s document efforts but emphasized respecting Cabral’s family.
“Matters of disclosing whatever files she shared before her death can still be done by concerned authorities at the proper time and venue,” he said.
Cabral was found unconscious near the Bued River in Tuba, Benguet, on December 18 and later pronounced dead. She had previously faced congressional hearings over alleged offers of insertions for favored projects, which she denied.
Former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo also claimed Cabral facilitated budget insertions with provisions for kickbacks.