MANILA — Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson branded the flood control project scandal as a greed-driven “inside job robbery” against the Filipino people.

Lacson, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating the controversy, said the extent of corruption uncovered so far exposes the uncontrollable lust for wealth by those involved.

“With all that has been exposed so far by our Senate inquiry, even my ‘corruptionary’ won’t have the words for the insatiable greed of those government officials involved in what I can only describe as an ‘inside job robbery’ committed against the People of the Philippines,” he said in a post on X Wednesday night, on the eve of the panel’s next hearing.

He added that the anomaly was made worse because the officials behind it were entrusted with taxpayers’ money while the fraudulent projects cost ordinary Filipinos their lives, livelihood and property.

Last August, Lacson released his “CORRUPTionary,” a collection of terms describing methods used by corrupt lawmakers and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials behind substandard or ghost flood control projects.

The Senate probe has since revealed huge cash deliveries by contractors to DPWH engineers, requirement schemes by junior personnel, and a so-called “leadership fund” that allows lawmakers to insert projects in the National Expenditure Program.

Lacson earlier tagged Congress as the “original sin” in the scandal, saying that without insertions by lawmakers, the DPWH would not have huge funds to manipulate.

He has called for the prosecution, conviction, and jailing of those involved, and has backed the Independent Commission for Infrastructure and prosecuting agencies such as the Department of Justice by sharing evidence gathered by him, his staff, and the Blue Ribbon Committee.