Lacson to resign from blue ribbon committee

October 6 ------ SEN. Panfilo Lacson on Sunday said he will resign as chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee after some colleagues aired their disappointment over his handling of the investigation into anomalous flood control projects.

Some senators were asking why Lacson had not invited former House speaker Martin Romualdez and Rep. Zaldy Co to testify before the committee. They also reportedly got offended when Lacson said that “almost all” senators in the 19th Congress made budget insertions in the 2025 national budget amounting to over P100 billion.

Lacson, who is also Senate president pro tempore, said all Senate committee chairmen, including the blue ribbon, are elected by fellow senators and “thus serve at the pleasure of their peers.” “Rightly or wrongly, when quite a number of them have expressed disappointment over how I’m handling the flood control project anomalies, I thought it’s time for me to step aside in favor of another member who they think can handle the committee better,” Lacson said.

“No amount of criticisms from misinformed netizens and partisan sectors can distract or pressure me from doing my job right, but when my own peers start expressing their group or individual sentiments, maybe it is best to vacate,” he said in a statement. “Nevertheless, I will continue to fight a corrupt and rotten system in the misuse and abuse of public funds as I have consistently done in the course of my long years in public service,” Lacson said.

Lacson had exposed in two privilege speeches the web of corruption at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) involving substandard and nonexistent flood control projects. He said some DPWH officials, private contractors, and lawmakers colluded in skimming funds for the projects.

In a radio interview Sunday, Lacson said he was preparing his resignation letter and might formally manifest it in plenary when the Senate resumes its session on Monday. He scored the “false narratives” circulating in social media that he was targeting fellow senators while shielding members of the House perceived to be the masterminds behind the scandal, particularly Romualdez and Co. “If you ask me, I would say I handled the hearings well. But there are those trying to disrupt the hearings,” Lacson said. “In one instance, the hearing had barely started when someone tried to make a distraction. That is why there is a perception that the hearings were not handled well,” Lacson said in Filipino.

Lacson took over the blue ribbon panel from Sen. Rodante Marcoleta after Sen. Francis Escudero was ousted as Senate president and replaced by Sen. Tito Sotto III last Sept. 8. Lacson said he would scrutinize the DPWH’s proposed 2026 budget even as he called on fellow lawmakers to exercise self-restraint in making proposed realignments, especially for locally funded infrastructure projects.

Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri on Wednesday said there was “no disunity” in the Senate. Zubiri said he was aware of a video circulating on social media where he appeared to express dissatisfaction with the Senate leadership. “To be clear: The video is real, but it was taken months ago under very different circumstances, not under the present leadership of Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III,” Zubiri said in a statement. “To use it now as if it reflects today’s situation is simply misleading. What we have today is a Senate that runs better and more systematically,” he said. Zubiri said that under Sotto, “we have regular caucuses where everyone can speak up, debate issues, and arrive at a consensus before making decisions for the Filipino people.” “This has strengthened unity among senators and improved the quality of our work. The Senate remains strong, credible, and focused on passing meaningful legislation,” he said.

Source: manilatimes.net