Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Monday blamed Congress as the “original sin” behind the widespread corruption and failure of the country’s flood control projects, which he stressed have turned the lives of Filipinos into a "living hell.”

In a radio interview, Lacson said the legislative branch's practice of inserting funds into public works budgets has enabled systemic graft in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“Congress is the original sin here,” Lacson, who chairs the powerful Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, declared. 

“If congressmen and senators did not insert funds, there would be no funds for corrupt Department of Public Works and Highways officials to play with, especially in the district engineering offices. It has come to a point where corruption became systemic, where even junior functionaries invent their own money-making schemes,” he added.

The senator made the remarks ahead of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s next hearing scheduled for Tuesday, September 23. The committee is investigating a massive corruption involving substandard and ghost flood control projects linked to kickbacks, fund diversion, and bogus contractors.

Among those who have previously appeared before the Senate hearings are dismissed DPWH engineers Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez, Syms Construction owner Sally Santos, and business personalities Pacifico Discaya II and Cezarah Discaya.

While Hernandez and Santos have reportedly begun cooperating with the investigation, Alcantara was cited for contempt and detained for refusing to answer the committee’s questions. Pacifico Discaya II was likewise cited in contempt, while Cezarah was issued a show-cause order.

The Senate panel is currently analyzing documents and evidence submitted by Hernandez, who was briefly allowed to return to his home under tight security to retrieve records backing his claims.

Hernandez has implicated Senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada in alleged budget insertions and kickbacks linked to the 2023 and 2025 flood control allocations—accusations both lawmakers strongly deny.

Lacson made it clear that the investigation will not stop at the lower-level operatives.

“We must make sure that the logical conclusion does not stop with Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, Sally Santos, or the Discayas,” he said. “The goal is to hold everyone accountable, especially those above them. But we need hard evidence to do that.”

Former DPWH Undersecretary for Operations Roberto Bernardo has been summoned to Tuesday’s hearing. 

Lacson noted that Bernardo played a key role in appointing Alcantara to his controversial post in Bulacan, after a stint being "seconded" to the City of Manila under then-Mayor Joseph Estrada.

He further pledged that any information or evidence unearthed in the Senate probe would be shared with the newly formed Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), which is conducting its own parallel investigation into systemic corruption in infrastructure projects.

“I am not bragging, but we can greatly help the ICI if we don't keep evidence to ourselves, and we will not. We will help," he said.

Call for budget reform, restraint

Lacson also renewed his call for Congress to exercise restraint during budget deliberations, particularly in the insertion of locally funded infrastructure projects that funnel billions to the DPWH.

“I hope House Speaker Faustino Dy III and Senate President Tito Sotto can agree with the chairmen of the House appropriations committee and Senate finance committee to bar insertions for infrastructure projects, especially for the DPWH. Because it all starts there, and some lawmakers got greedier and greedier,” he said.