Lacson tags DPWH exec in alleged early budget insertions

Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson on Sunday publicly identified a high-ranking official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as being involved in alleged premature insertions into the proposed 2026 national budget.

In a radio interview, Lacson said a person identifying herself as “Undersecretary Cabral” contacted a member of Senate Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III’s staff shortly after the May 2025 senatorial elections. 

The caller reportedly invited the staff to submit proposed insertions for the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026, well ahead of the official budget deliberations.

“One ‘Undersecretary Cabral’ called Sotto’s staff and told them to insert what they wanted to insert,” Lacson revealed in Filipino. 

“If Sen. Sotto was one of those called by that executive, who else could have been contacted similarly and submitted their proposed insertions?,” he added. 

The DPWH’s official website lists Maria Catalina E. Cabral as the Undersecretary for Planning, Public-Private Partnership, and Information Management Services, a position deeply involved in budget planning and infrastructure projects.

According to Lacson, Sotto declined to submit any insertions, citing their shared advocacy for transparency and good governance. 

Lacson stressed the need to determine how many lawmakers from both the Senate and House of Representatives might have participated in similar behind-the-scenes insertions.

He then has asked for the relevant records of the DPWH, aas he questioned the integrity of the budget process. 

Lacson cited hundreds of suspicious entries in the 2026 NEP, including 660 identical P100-million project listings lacking detailed descriptions or stationing. 

“The safeguards are rendered useless if there is collusion,” he warned. 

“If there is collusion, all safeguards will be disregarded, as seen in the briefing of the Development Budget Coordination Committee, where there was collusion between legislators and the DPWH in the drafting of the NEP," he said.

Lacson added that the budget call — the period when agencies prepare their proposals for the NEP — began in January 2025 and likely concluded by June, ahead of the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28. 

He noted that these early insertions likely occurred even before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a call for transparency and accountability during his SONA.

The revelations come in the wake of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin’s remarks urging the House of Representatives to “clean its own house” in response to mounting public calls for accountability.

Lacson has since requested access to relevant DPWH documents and is expected to pursue further inquiries into the alleged irregularities.