Lacson denies net worth doubled, accuses Alan Peter Cayetano of P6.79-B 'insertions'

Senator Panfilo Lacson on Saturday denied Senator Alan Peter Cayetano’s claim that his net worth had doubled and countered by accusing Cayetano of securing P6.79 billion in insertions in the 2025 national budget.

“Unlike Sen. Cayetano, with P6.79 billion in budget insertions under the 2025 GAA (General Appropriations Act), I have had no insertions, a.k.a. pork barrel, since I became a senator. And I do not receive any 25% kickback from slope protection and other infrastructure projects,” Lacson said.

“I don’t know about him, but I have consistently refused lobby money in relation to my job as a legislator,” he said in a statement issued later Saturday.

Lacson was responding to claims Cayetano made during a 20-minute Facebook Live broadcast on Saturday, in which he questioned the arrests of minority senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta and described them, along with former lawmaker Mike Defensor, as “political prisoners.”

Estrada was arrested on plunder charges in connection with the alleged flood control scam. He is accused of receiving P573 million in illegal payouts from flood infrastructure projects.

Marcoleta, meanwhile, admitted receiving P75 million in campaign contributions that he did not declare in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures. Defensor was identified as one of the alleged donors.

Cayetano did not discuss these details during his broadcast but called for the truth to come out in all the cases.

He also raised questions about the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) of Lacson and Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairperson Erwin Tulfo.

“Kay Senator Lacson, ’di ba? Ano ’yung actual? I didn’t really pay that much attention, pero parang dumoble ’yung kanyang SALN,” Cayetano said.

(Regarding Senator Lacson, what is the actual figure? I didn’t really pay that much attention, but it appears that his [net worth in his] SALN doubled.)

Lacson said he had earned his money legitimately through private businesses. He said his income increased only after he left government service, as could be verified through his income tax returns.

Lacson then countered Cayetano’s insinuation by accusing him of securing billions of pesos in budget insertions.

EXPLAINER: What are ‘insertions’ in the budget process?

Lacson further claimed that two projects worth a combined P75 million—which he said formed part of Cayetano’s alleged P6.79-billion insertions—were not completed.

GMA News Online reached out to Cayetano's office for his comment and will update this story once a response is issued.

'Realignments'

Budget insertions became a major point of contention during the 2025 budget deliberations, with several lawmakers accused of realigning funds in the national budget. Executive branch officials lamented that the enacted GAA differed substantially from the proposed National Expenditure Program.

Although some legislators defended the realignments as necessary amendments, the controversy intensified amid investigations into the alleged flood control scam.

The investigations uncovered what authorities described as systemic manipulation of the budget, in which officials allegedly siphoned off billions of pesos by channeling public funds into substandard or nonexistent projects.

Lacson also cautioned Cayetano against being too eager to demand investigations, claiming that Taguig City—Cayetano’s political bailiwick—also had ghost projects.

Without providing specific details, Lacson alluded to a Taguig City engineer who allegedly used aliases to gamble large sums of money. He likened the allegation to reports that several Bulacan engineers had used casinos to launder money supposedly stolen through flood control projects.—MCG, GMA News