Senate President Pro Tempore is pushing to ban lawmakers from making insertions for infrastructure projects in the budget bill in a bid to prevent a repeat of the massive corruption behind anomalous flood control projects across the country.

In a radio interview, Lacson stressed that the scale of corruption that has triggered public outrage and fueled protest actions "all stem from the insertions made by greedy lawmakers."

"Both houses of Congress must agree not to make insertions for infrastructure projects. Institutional amendments are allowed, but other insertions must be removed," he said in Filipino.

Lacson added that lawmakers must not meddle in infrastructure projects as they are "the root of massive corruption."

"If we analyze the situation, Congress starts the corruption because of numerous insertions involving hundreds of billions of pesos," he continued.

He further explained that without such insertions in the budget, there will be no taxpayers' money for corrupt officials in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) "to play with or gamble away in casinos."

He added that lawmakers should focus on making institutional amendments, such as additional funding for agencies like the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) whose budgets were slashed in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

The AMLC's proposed 2026 budget was P333.1 million, but its recommended appropriation in the NEP was only P170.161 million.

"I plan to help restore its proposed budget because the AMLC plays a vital role, such as freezing accounts and monitoring covered persons. If they lack funds for facilities and their digital systems, their budget must be augmented," he said.

The senator also said the Department of Budget and Management must be more circumspect in making recommendations to the President on the use of the unprogrammed funds.

While Lacson shared the concern of Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian that unprogrammed appropriations in the budget may be a form of pork barrel, he said the suggestion to remove the unprogrammed appropriations may need further study.

During last Blue Ribbon panel hearing on 18 Sept., Lacson - citing documents from Gatchalian - said P600 million supposedly for flood control projects in Bulacan was found in the Unprogrammed Fund under the 2023 General Appropriations Act, which sacked DPWH Bulacan Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez earlier linked Senator Joel Villanueva to.

"We must study this because removing the unprogrammed funds altogether may affect foreign-assisted projects that need augmentation. Big-ticket projects may be affected because if local funding is lacking, the President needs to get funds from the Special Purpose Fund under the unprogrammed funds," Lacson said.