Lacson Slams DBM for ‘Negligence’ in Release of Flood Control Funds, Flags ₱100B Senate Insertions

The office of Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman did not escape the scrutiny of Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson over the release of funds for the controversial flood control projects.

Lacson accused the DBM of negligence for releasing flood control funds drawn from the unprogrammed appropriations under the 2025 General Appropriations Act.

“In one way or another, there was negligence on the part of the DBM because how were the unprogrammed appropriations tapped and channeled to an infrastructure project?” Lacson said.

Meanwhile, Lacson revealed that senators under the 19th Congress inserted more than ₱100 billion into this year’s national budget.

According to Lacson, documents he obtained show that these were individual insertions, even though they were tagged as “For Later Release” (FLR).

“In the Senate alone, that’s at least ₱100 billion. I was surprised—these are individual insertions, and they’re now under FLR,” Lacson said in a radio interview.

“It’s huge. I’ve never seen anything like it. Back in the day, before the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was declared unconstitutional, insertions were only in the hundreds of millions. Now I’ve seen the total—at least ₱100 billion,” he added.

Lacson noted that he has yet to see the complete list of insertions from the House of Representatives, but he said that list is also quite extensive.

He said he may question concerned agencies during Senate deliberations on the proposed 2026 national budget to find out why such budget insertions were allowed.

“During the budget deliberations, I can ask why these were allowed. During plenary scrutiny, I want to know how many of these insertions were actually released and how they were implemented,” he said.

Lacson also voiced concern over the release of unprogrammed appropriations.

He emphasized that while insertions or amendments are not automatically illegal, they become questionable when individual insertions reach ₱5 billion to ₱9 billion each.

He warned that this practice could pose risks to the economy, as delayed or diverted funds could have been allocated to infrastructure projects that were carefully planned and reviewed at the barangay, city, and regional levels.

Lacson once again urged his fellow lawmakers to exercise restraint in making insertions for locally funded infrastructure projects—not only in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) but also in the Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Transportation (DOTr), both of which handle major infrastructure initiatives.

He also called on legislators to avoid using the so-called “leadership fund” in the DPWH, which allows lawmakers to insert projects at the level of the National Expenditure Program.