Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste and Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon continued to trade barbs Tuesday over allegations of billions of pesos in budget “insertions,” with Ridon accusing his neophyte colleague of being a “liar” and a “fake news” perpetrator.
In a message to DAILY TRIBUNE, Ridon said he would not yield to Leviste’s call for him to resign as chairperson of the House committee on public accounts, after Leviste pushed for an investigation into the alleged P150 billion worth of insertions supposedly made by the Bicol Saro Party-list in the 2025 budget.
The alleged insertions were purportedly found in files handed to Leviste by the late Maria Catalina Cabral, a former undersecretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
"First, release the Cabral insertions list you claim to have had since September 4; admit that you lied and faked news that I had insertions for the 2025 budget before you start making up new stories,” Ridon said in Filipino, referring to Leviste.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Leviste announced that a resolution was already underway urging the House of Representatives to investigate public works projects awarded to Bicol Goldrock Construction, a contractor that allegedly bagged two road projects endorsed by the Bicol Saro Party-list in Pamplona and Pasacao, Camarines Sur, worth P75 million each.
Citing Cabral’s files, Leviste alleged that the Bicol Saro Party-list inserted these line items in the 2025 General Appropriations Act—claims Ridon vehemently denied.
Ridon called Leviste a “super liar,” stressing that he was not yet a member of the House of Representatives when the 2025 budget was crafted in 2024 during the 19th Congress, making it impossible for him to have made any “insertions.”
Ridon first served as a lawmaker from 2013 to 2016 under Kabataan Party-list. He returned to Congress in July this year after Bicol Saro, which is tied to the Villafuerte political dynasty, won a House seat.
Leviste later clarified that he was not explicitly referring to Ridon personally, but to the Bicol Saro Party-list itself, which was represented in the previous Congress by Rep. Brian Yamsuan.
Referencing DPWH records, Leviste claimed that Camarines Sur-based Bicol Goldrock Construction and GCI Construction Development Corp., along with other firms owned by Steve and Gigi Ibasco, were awarded more than P42.3 billion in contracts in the Bicol region alone.
Leviste further alleged that the same firms were also the top contractors in Batangas’ First District—his home district—from 2016 to 2025, supposedly securing about P15 billion in government projects.
“They are also the top contractor[s] in Cong. Ridon’s province of Camarines Sur, and have reportedly built some of the most overpriced and substandard roads in the country,” Leviste said in a post.
He added that the projects of the Ibasco-owned companies appeared in the so-called “CENTI2025” list, which he claimed involved “parked funds” or projects allegedly pre-ordered by contractors in exchange for kickbacks.
Aside from flood control projects, Leviste also alleged that GCI Construction was the top contractor for the Department of Agriculture’s farm-to-market roads in 2024.
Days after Cabral fell to her death from a 30-meter cliff along Kennon Road in Tuba, Benguet, Leviste claimed he possessed crucial files allegedly detailing the proponents of budget insertions within the DPWH.
The alleged proponents, he said, include not only members of the House but all senators—including his mother, Loren Legarda—as well as officials from the executive branch and DPWH undersecretaries.
Leviste, however, refused to publicly release the files without the approval of DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon.
He claimed that Cabral handed him the files on September 4, following a supposed marching order from Dizon, who was then only on his second day as DPWH secretary after replacing resigned secretary Manuel Bonoan.
Two weeks later, Cabral resigned as undersecretary for Planning and Public-Private Partnership amid the widening probes into alleged large-scale corruption in flood control projects.
In September, Senator Ping Lacson explicitly tagged Cabral in alleged budget insertion irregularities, claiming she reached out to Senate staff shortly after the May 2025 polls to ask what public works projects they wanted included in the 2026 national budget.
The alleged scheme involved Cabral approaching lawmakers with offers of kickbacks for their pet projects, which she would insert into the DPWH’s initial budget proposal before final funding approval by Congress and Malacañang.