Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson is back as chairperson of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III confirmed on Tuesday, 21 October.

“Long story. In the course of our many conversations, it has come to his (Sen. Ping’s) attention regarding the clamor of some of our colleagues and the public that he retake the [committee],” Sotto told reporters in a Viber message.

According to the Senate president, Lacson will be “100 percent” back as head of the chamber’s powerful Blue Ribbon panel once it opens its second regular session in November.

On 6 October, Lacson stepped aside as chairperson of the committee, citing disappointments aired by his fellow senators over the investigations into anomalous flood control projects.

In a resignation letter addressed to Sotto dated 7 October, Lacson explained that several of their colleagues had expressed disappointment with the “direction” of the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings.

“Some senators publicly and secretly pursue the narrative that I am zeroing in on several of my colleagues while purportedly protecting those members of the lower house perceived to be the principal actors in the budget anomalies related to the substandard and ghost flood control projects,” he wrote.

Lacson, however, said the narratives are categorically false. “These misrepresentations are being floated mostly by critics opposed to our efforts to get to the bottom of the flood control anomalies.”

Following his resignation, Senator Erwin Tulfo, vice chairperson of the committee, was named acting chair of the panel.