MANILA — Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson called for a genuine inter-agency investigation into claims linking Cabinet officials to multibillion-peso budget insertions for Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) infrastructure projects, warning that prematurely dismissing the allegations could be seen as a “cover-up.”

Lacson said it was too early for Malacañang to label the claims as “hearsay,” stressing that significant evidence had already surfaced, particularly from hearings conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, which he chairs.

“Instead of pursuing an honest-to-goodness inter-agency investigation by using whatever probative value was unearthed mainly from the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings, to prematurely dismiss the probable involvement of some members of the Cabinet as ‘hearsay’ may be interpreted as a euphemism for ‘cover-up,’” Lacson said.

He was responding to remarks by Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro, who dismissed allegations that some Cabinet secretaries were proponents of infrastructure budget insertions for 2025 as “hearsay” with “no probative value,” adding that the Palace would only respond to documents authenticated by the DPWH.

Lacson said evidence generated by the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings includes “testimonies, supported by official documents in the budget books like lists of items that corroborate the testimonies of resource persons whose involvement in the plunder of public funds have been clearly established through their admission against interest and under oath at that.”

He also cited the possible discovery of a “web of accounts” that could trace fund movements, as initiated by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Lacson warned that ignoring the issue could further inflame public anger over the scale of corruption behind failed and ghost infrastructure projects.

“In the final analysis, we cannot blame the public, led by the Catholic Church, other religious sectors and civil groups for their unrelenting display of anger and distrust in government,” he said.