Senator Imee R. Marcos on Sunday brushed off remarks by Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson regarding her alleged budget “wishlist,” saying the projects cited were never funded and remained mere proposals submitted to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
In a Viber message to reporters, Imee described Lacson’s comments as “somewhat laughable,” stressing that the supposed wishlist had been classified as for later release (FLR) and that no funds were ever disbursed.
“Medyo nakakatawa siya, 'di niya alam na lahat yan ay wishlist na binigay sa DPWH Central Office (He’s quite funny. He doesn’t seem to know that all of those were just a wishlist submitted to the DPWH Central Office),” Imee said.
“Clueless ba siya na kaming mga oposisyon lahat FLR or ‘for later release’ kaya ni isa diyan ay walang naibigay, ZERO KAMING LAHAT nila Bong Go, Bato at Robin! (Is he clueless that all of us in the opposition were tagged FLR or ‘for later release’? None of those were released—zero for all of us, including Senators Bong Go, Bato [dela Rosa], and Robin [Padilla]),” she further lamented.
Imee also rejected any implication that she had influence over which projects were funded by the administration.
“Malay ko ba sa allocables ng admin (I have no idea about the administration’s allocables),” she said.
“Sa aming dalawa, hindi ako ang abogada ng Malacañang (Between the two of us, I am not Malacañang’s lawyer),” she added.
Imee suggested that Lacson’s criticism was unusually personal, joking that he seemed overly aggressive toward her.
“Parang masyadong gigil itong si Senator Ping sa akin—baka makipagsabunutan (Senator Ping seems too fired up against me—he might even want to pull my hair),” she quipped.
“Sure akong talo ako diyan! (I’m sure I’d lose that fight),”
Earlier, Lacson flagged P2.5 billion worth of “allocables” he said were linked to Imee in the 2025 National Expenditure Program (NEP), questioning her criticism of alleged pork barrel items in the proposed 2026 national budget and her silence during bicameral conference deliberations.
Lacson said documents he received from the camp of the late DPWH Undersecretary Catalina Cabral showed that Marcos had allocables amounting to P2.5 billion in the 2025 NEP.