Photo credit: Ping Lacson

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson has confirmed a ₱355 million budget insertion for flood control projects in the province of Bulacan for the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA). The confirmation comes amid allegations from a former public works official linking the fund to kickbacks.

During a congressional hearing, former Bulacan Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez accused Senator Jinggoy Estrada of being the proponent of the ₱355 million fund and receiving a 30% commission from it. The projects were for flood control in various parts of the province. Estrada has strongly denied the claims, challenging Hernandez to a public lie detector test and threatening legal action.

Lacson, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, stated that his staff investigated the claim and confirmed that the ₱355 million fund was not present in either the original National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the executive branch or the House of Representatives' budget version. This indicates the fund was inserted either in the Senate's version of the budget bill or during the bicameral conference committee, where both houses of Congress reconcile their versions of the budget.

Lacson acknowledges the difficulty in pinpointing the exact legislator responsible for the insertion. He explained that these amendments are often handwritten on scraps of paper, making them hard to trace and officially document. This lack of a paper trail could mean that no lawmaker will ultimately be held accountable. To get more information, Lacson plans to speak with former Senator Grace Poe, who served as the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance when the budget was being deliberated. Lacson will extend "inter-parliamentary courtesy" by first consulting with Poe before possibly summoning her to a hearing. He hopes she can shed light on who the proponent of the insertion was.