EDITORIAL — Back to the flood control probe

After being accused of amassing unexplained wealth, a fuming Sen. Panfilo Lacson is turning the tables on his accuser. And he promises to prove his charges against Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.

Lacson said his investigation had unearthed alleged ghost slope protection and drainage projects in Taguig that were funded through P2.385 billion inserted by Cayetano in the 2025 national budget. Lacson cited double appropriations for the same project – typically a red flag for a ghost or non-existent project. 

Earlier, Lacson had flagged questionable projects in Taguig, Cayetano’s bailiwick, that were linked to disgraced public works contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya. Some of the projects dated back to the period when Cayetano was speaker of the House of Representatives, Lacson said.

Cayetano has maintained that Taguig has no ghost projects and is flood-free, and that Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon had told him that the projects are aboveboard.

Dizon himself, however, is facing a probe by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with corruption allegations related to the construction of the New Clark City sports complex for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

The National Bureau of Investigation has also launched a probe into alleged funding anomalies for the 2019 SEA Games under its organizing committee – a private non-stock corporation supposedly chaired by Cayetano, although the NBI noted that he is not listed among the board members in the registration papers.

Both Cayetano and Dizon, who served as Cayetano’s Senate consultant from 2013 to 2016, have denied wrongdoing and have expressed readiness to face any probe. 

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee, now headed by Sen. Erwin Tulfo, is set to resume probes on flood control anomalies.

Cayetano and the minority senators have said any probe should also include persons allied with the administration. Their sentiment is shared by many Filipinos, who are also waiting for “big fish” belonging to the administration to face formal investigation.

But now that Lacson has raised the issue, people are also waiting for the truth to come out in the accusations he has openly hurled against the minority leader.

Such accusations are like toothpaste; they can’t be put back in the tube. The accusations must be subjected to a thorough probe.