MANILA – Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson flagged what he called “questionable” flood control allocations amounting to P11.9 billion in Oriental Mindoro.

Lacson said he will remain active in scrutinizing the proposed 2026 national budget and will participate in committee hearings and plenary debates to call out irregularities, including lump-sum and pork-like insertions.

“Hindi ko iiwanan ang aking tungkulin lalo na sa pagbantay ng national budget (I will not abandon my duty especially in guarding the national budget),” Lacson said in an interview over True FM.

He pointed to a small barangay in Oriental Mindoro that was allocated P1.9 billion for flood control projects and a nearby small town that received a P10-billion allocation—despite their size and capacity to implement such large-scale infrastructure programs.

Oriental Mindoro is among the provinces recently affected by flooding due to Severe Tropical Storm Crising and the southwest monsoon, but Lacson raised doubts over whether such disproportionate allocations were justified or politically motivated.

“Sa akin, tama na ang put them on notice—may nakikialam, may nag-aaral, may nakukuhang datos na tatanungin kayo (It’s enough to put them on notice that someone is studying the data and will be asking questions),” he said.

The veteran lawmaker, known for exposing pork barrel and anomalous budget items in previous years, also cited past questionable allocations he helped scrap. These included the “Tulong Dunong” scholarship program allegedly manipulated by lawmakers, and right-of-way payments by the Department of Public Works and Highways despite having billions in unutilized funds.

He renewed his call for greater public vigilance and transparency in the budget process, warning that “year in and year out,” billions of pesos in unused appropriations are wasted due to lack of coordination with implementing agencies.

“Ang magkausap lang congressman at contractor niya. O kausap niya sarili niya kasi contractor siya (Only the congressman and his contractor talk. Sometimes it’s just the congressman because he is the contractor),” Lacson quipped.

Lacson has refiled a bill seeking to institutionalize the participation of civil society organizations in the national budget deliberations, including during the bicameral conference committee, as a means to curb hidden insertions and corruption.

“It’s about time magising tayong lahat (we all wake up),” he said. “Bantayan natin ang budget kasi ito ang lifeline ng ekonomiya, if not the country itself.”