A Senate sub-panel is set to be formed to resume the stalled high-stakes probe into the alleged corruption scheme involving the flood control projects, Senate President Alan Cayetano announced Friday. 

Senator Rodante Marcoleta, one of the vice chairs of the Blue Ribbon Committee, will spearhead the hearing on Thursday, 4 June. Notices will be issued as early as Monday, according to Cayetano. 

“It will be impartial, and we want the whole truth and not only some truth or some true, some not true to come out,” the Senate leader said in a Facebook live. 

The powerful BRC was originally chaired by Marcoleta in the current 20th Congress, after he was replaced by Lacson in September last year following a leadership shakeup. Another coup materialized earlier this month, leading to Lacson losing the powerful committee to Senator Pia Cayetano. 

SP Cayetano averred that they will give due importance to the flood control probe, as well as the impending impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, and the current economic crisis.

The lawmaker from Taguig asserted that the sub-committee will finally address the alleged discrepancies between Lacson’s and the Ombudsman’s statements involving the “mastermind” behind the anomalies in the flood control projects. 

“As you can see, there’s already a conflict…Let's have the hearings, then let the people judge. And my advice to the 11 (minority bloc), be prepared and attend [the hearing] rather than spewing out venom, calling us names,” he stressed.

Prior to the coup, Lacson suspended the flood control probe pending the approval of the majority of senators to the BRC’s draft report. The report in question recommends that Senators Chiz Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, and Joel Villanueva be subject to further probe for possible corruption charges, over allegations that they received millions of kickbacks from flood control projects. 

The BRC’s report has drawn backlash from the former minority, then led by Cayetano, for allegedly being biased by singling out their peers, while excluding some members of the House of Representatives who were also implicated in the supposed kickback scheme. 

Marcoleta has openly expressed dismay with how Lacson led the probe since taking it over from him, accusing the latter of deliberately avoiding delving into the issue to pinpoint the real culprits behind the scheme. This includes Lacson’s alleged resistance to inviting the former 18 Marines to testify in the BRC hearing following allegations that they delivered suitcases of kickbacks to top government officials, including President Marcos Jr. and members of Congress. 

Lacson has long denied shielding former House speaker Martin Romualdez, claiming that he invited him to the hearings to shed light on the allegations of his supposed involvement. 

He, however, argued that he cannot compel Romualdez to attend the probe due to inter-parliamentary courtesy. Romualdez has since denied involvement in the anomalies in the flood control projects, which were allegedly funded through “insertions” of lawmakers in the national budget in exchange for kickbacks. 

The erstwhile House chief also warned that he would be a “scapegoat” or “fall guy for other people’s corruption.” 

Murmurs persist that another looming coup is underway to unseat Cayetano, who was accused of snatching the Senate presidency to shield his colleagues from possible arrest.

Earlier this week, Lacson welcomed the Ombudsman’s filing of plunder and graft charges against Estrada, calling the development “vindication“ of the findings of flood control probe under his watch.