Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito warned the ongoing exchange of barbs between the House of Representatives and the Senate is bad for the country, sending a negative signal to potential international investors.

“I hope these PR stunts will stop,” Ejercito said in Filipino at the Kapihan sa Senado. “All this bickering and political conflicts, they don’t help. It doesn’t give a good signal abroad for potential direct investors or foreign direct investments (FDI), which we have been trying to lure. We are saying the Philippines is open for business, then this is the situation. It doesn’t help.”

He said the PR jobs being conducted to smear each other continue — from the time of Senate President Migz Zubiri and now in the time of Senate President Francis Escudero.

Ejercito noted that, unlike the Philippines, neighboring ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have been reaping the rewards of heavy infrastructure investments backed by sound policies.

“We are lagging behind them. With the remaining three years of this administration, we have to triple our efforts, especially in infrastructure and energy policies, which are being scrutinized by foreign investors,” he said.

Preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed the country’s FDI declined by 26.9 percent in the first five months of the year, or from the $4 billion posted in January–May 2024 to $3 billion in January-May 2025.

Congressmen hit

On Tuesday, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero accused some congressmen who support the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte of being behind the move to smear his reputation and have him ousted from the Senate presidency.

This followed the publication of an article revealing his connection to Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc. which bagged P5.16-billion worth of flood control projects in Sorsogon.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a press conference on Monday identified Centerways as one of the construction firms that will be investigated.

The link between Escudero and Lubiano was the P30 million the latter donated to the former for his campaign for the 2022 elections.

Escudero said a fellow senator told him about a demolition job to oust him before the next impeachment case against VP Duterte is filed in February next year.

“The article against me, in connection with President Marcos Jr.’s flood control controversy yesterday, is malicious and ill-timed. I acknowledged the person mentioned in the article, contractor Lubiano, a fellow Sorsoganon. But what he allegedly secured was only P5.4 billion in projects — not even one percent of the total amount the President mentioned for flood control.

“My question is, why focus on that one percent and not the remaining 99 percent? Why not on the lawmakers and government officials who are also contractors?” Escudero asked.

The Senate President maintained that he is not a contractor and has never been engaged in contracting for any government infrastructure project since he entered politics in 1998.

“The contractor from Sorsogon secured the flood control contract before I entered the Senate in 2022. The article is malicious. The timing of the insinuation is ill. Behind this are those who were hurt by my privilege speeches during the impeachment debate — that’s the information I got. They are not in the Senate but they are outsiders. It’s obvious who they are, and they are the ones pushing for (Duterte’s) impeachment,” Escudero said.

Despite this, Escudero acknowledged that there was nothing wrong with the article; he was questioning its apparent implications.

“The accusation happened when I was not yet a senator. In my 27 years in government, a wrong for me is wrong, and what is right is right,” he said.

In his presentation, President Marcos identified the five contractors that stood out for cornering most of the flood control projects in the country as Legacy Construction Corp., Alpha & Omega General Contractor & Development Corp., St. Timothy Construction Corp., EGB Construction Corp., and Road Edge Trading & Development Services.

The contractors that cornered about P100 billion, or roughly 20 percent, of the total flood control budget, aside from the five firms, were Centerways Construction and Development Inc., QM Builders, Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc., Sunwest Inc., Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corporation, Triple 8 Construction & Supply Inc., Royal Crown Monarch Construction & Supplies Corporation, Wawao Builders, MG Samidan Construction, L.R. Tiqui Builders Inc., and Road Edge Trading & Development Services.