Lacson: Spare newly elected senators from Leviste’s DPWH claims

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said senators elected in the May 2025 midterm elections were not among those allegedly involved in budget insertions in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 2025 budget, countering claims made by Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste.

Lacson clarified that the records cited by Leviste—purportedly showing P120 billion worth of senators’ insertions in the DPWH budget—refer to a spending measure passed by the 19th Congress, months before the May elections.

“Congressman Leviste should at least qualify his statement with the phrase ‘in the 19th Congress’ in fairness to the new members of the 20th Congress, including myself and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, among others,” Lacson said.

He added that even in previous Congresses, he had consistently refused to participate in so-called “allocables” or pork barrel allocations.

“That said, even during the previous Congresses, I never partook of allocables or pork barrel allocations, or whatever names they were called,” Lacson said.

Lacson was among the 12 senators elected last May who assumed office on June 30, along with Vicente Sotto III.

He stressed that as a newly elected senator at the time, he could not have participated in the preparation of the 2025 national budget, including the DPWH allocation.

Leviste earlier claimed in a radio interview(toggle: earlier in a radio interview) that senators had inserted P120 billion into the DPWH’s 2025 budget, citing documents he said were provided by the late DPWH Undersecretary Ma. Catalina Cabral.

The Batangas lawmaker also said his mother, Senator Loren Legarda, was listed as having project insertions, though he quoted her as saying she had no knowledge of the projects attributed to her.