MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has called on Atty. Paolo Panelo, spokesperson for Vice President Sara Duterte, to issue a correction regarding his claim that the Senate squandered approximately ₱500 million during a 20-day span of the impeachment trial.
Panelo had earlier voiced frustration over the withdrawal of three out of four impeachment articles by the House prosecution panel, arguing that the proceedings resulted in a massive waste of public funds.
Challenging these figures, Lacson questioned the basis of Panelo’s assertions in a statement released on Wednesday, October 14.
“Where did he get his ₱25-million per day figure? As far as I know, the GAA (General Appropriations Act) 2025 budget for the impeachment trial, most of which has remained unspent from the original ₱27.5-million is now being used under the ‘continuing appropriations’ provision in the GAA,” Lacson said.
The senator-judge noted that actual disbursements for the trial have been minimal, with only about ₱2 million spent so far on items such as the robes for senator-judges.
Lacson suggested that Panelo likely made an honest error by misinterpreting the Senate’s regular daily operational costs as trial-specific expenses. He explained that the ₱25 million daily figure actually reflects the institution’s overall legislative operations, derived from an earlier calculation of annual Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) and Personnel Services (PS) during a period of legislative gridlock.
”The ₱25M per day clearly refers to the legislative functions of the Senate, not to the impeachment trial as misinterpreted, and the basis was the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) and Personnel Services (PS) for one year which I computed on a per-day basis when the Cayetano-led boycott resulted in zero-legislation output due to lack of quorum after his ouster as Senate President,” he detailed.
”I urge the VP’s spokesman to rectify an obviously misleading figure of ₱500 million, as I assume it was an honest mistake on his part,” the senator added.
According to Lacson, the 2025 national budget allocated a specific fund of ₱27.5 million for impeachment proceedings, which falls under continuing appropriations valid until December 2026.
Lacson previously used the ₱25 million daily operational cost metric in June to criticize the brief 28-day Senate presidency of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, which faced disruptions including a Senate building shooting, the departure of Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa from protective custody, and a legislative boycott.