Alan Cayetano accuses Ping Lacson of ‘dictating’ flood control probe

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano accused Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson of acting as though he has authority over the various agencies and bodies investigating alleged irregularities in flood control projects.

In a Facebook livestream on 29 September, Cayetano called Lacson “Chief Justice Lacson, Prosecutor Lacson, DOJ Lacson, Secretary Lacson,” accusing him of dictating how investigations should proceed.

“Senator Ping Lacson is Chief Justice Lacson, Prosecutor Lacson, DOJ Lacson, Secretary Lacson — he is everything. He is the one dictating what should happen — at the LLDA, the Blue Ribbon Committee, the DILG, and the PRA. Even when they themselves say something, he changes it,” Cayetano said in Filipino.

The remarks came amid a dispute over Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon’s statements on alleged ghost flood control projects in Taguig.

Dizon initially told senators there were no ghost projects in Taguig based on the DPWH’s ongoing investigation. He later clarified that the statement referred to projects that had been conclusively established as ghost projects, while several questioned Taguig projects remain under investigation.

Cayetano said his previous working relationship with Dizon had prompted allegations that he influenced the secretary’s findings, but pointed out that Lacson also has a close relationship with Dizon.

“There was immediately an attempt to give it color and malice, that because I am close to Secretary Vince Dizon, it was as if he, I, or the two of us cooked up the statement that there was no ghost project in Taguig. First of all, I want to clarify that Senator Ping Lacson is very, very close to Secretary Dizon,” Cayetano said.

He also questioned why Lacson appeared to have access to investigation reports while he had not received any documents from Dizon.

“I did not receive even a single document from Secretary Dizon. But he said everything was open to everyone,” Cayetano said.

Lacson has questioned the DPWH’s findings on Taguig projects, including a project whose geotagged photographs reportedly placed its coordinates in Leyte. He has maintained that the investigation into questioned projects should continue and that preliminary findings should not be treated as conclusive.

Cayetano also alleged that Lacson had repeatedly threatened to have him imprisoned.

“Senator Lacson has said that covertly, repeatedly: ‘I will have him jailed.’ He has said it in different ways. For Senator Lacson, whenever something happened in Taguig, Alan Cayetano was automatically at fault,” he said.

Cayetano further urged Lacson and Dizon to follow President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive that no one should be spared from accountability.

“When you say no one will be spared, that goes both ways. That means no one who is guilty will be left behind. So if someone is guilty, point to them, even if they are close to the President. But it also means that if someone is innocent, you should not say that he is guilty,” Cayetano said.

Malacañang has called for a deeper investigation into the questioned Taguig flood control projects, saying there should be no cover-up while the probe remains ongoing.