The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee resumed on Sept. 25, 2025 its hearing on the corruption behind substandard and ghost flood control projects.
Lacson Grills DPWH on ‘Leadership Fund’: Why Let Lawmakers Tinker with NEP?
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Tuesday questioned the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)’s so-called “Leadership Fund,” which he said allowed lawmakers to tinker with the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
Lacson learned about the fund while grilling ex-DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s hearing on anomalous flood control projects.
During the hearing, Lacson had asked how ex-DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo could download hundreds of millions of pesos worth of projects sourced from the NEP, or the budget proposal prepared by the executive branch, to the Bulacan First District Engineering Office under now-sacked district engineer Henry Alcantara.
“The NEP is the President’s budget proposal to be transmitted to the House and eventually to the Senate. Why are there insertions in the NEP? That I cannot really understand for the life of me,” Lacson told Bonoan in a mix of English and Filipino at the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on anomalous flood control projects.
In Filipino: Lacson, Binanatan ang ‘Leadership Fund’ ng DPWH: Bakit Pinapayagang Sumawsaw ang mga Mambabatas sa NEP?
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Lacson: Congress is the ‘Original Sin’ Behind Flood Control Project Hell
Floods and the corruption behind substandard and ghost flood control projects have turned Filipinos’ lives into a living hell, and Congress is the “original sin” behind it all.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson stressed this on Monday as he said the logical conclusion to the Senate investigation on the matter must at least reach this “original sin.”
“We must make sure that the logical conclusion does not stop with Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, Sally Santos or the Discayas. We must see to it that the logical conclusion reaches the ‘original sin,'” Lacson, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee looking into the mess, said in Filipino in an interview on True FM.
“Congress is the original sin here. If congressmen and senators did not insert funds, there would be no funds for corrupt Department of Public Works and Highways officials to play with, especially in the district engineering offices. It has come to a point where corruption became systemic, where even junior functionaries invent their own money-making schemes,” he added.
Lacson is to chair the next hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 9 a.m. He said he has asked Senate President Vicente Sotto III to slightly delay the start of the regular session to 4 p.m.
In Filipino: Lacson: Kongreso ang ‘Original Sin’ sa Impyerno ng Maanomalyang Flood Control Projects
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Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Hearing on the Flood Control Mess
Senate President Pro Tempore Ping Lacson’s opening statement at the hearing on the flood control project mess.
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Blue Ribbon Committee’s serious housecleaning work [Manila Times]
From Marlen Ronquillo’s column in The Manila Times: With the leadership of the committee changing hands, from Rodante Marcoleta to Panfilo Lacson, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has gained both respect and credibility.
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