MANILA — Senate President Tempore Panfilo Lacson was reelected on Tuesday as chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee.
No senator objected when Sen. Ejercito moved to reinstate Lacson as chairman of the committee, which has been investigating the corruption allegations hounding the government’s flood control projects.
“Any objection? Chair hears none. Sen. Lacson is hereby elected,” Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III declared.
Lacson resigned last month as chairman of the committee as some of his colleagues expressed disappointment with the direction of its investigation.
“Some senators publicly and secretly pursue the narrative that I am zeroing in on several of my colleagues while purportedly protecting those members of the Lower House perceived to be the principal actors in the budget anomalies related to the substandard and ghost flood control projects,” he said in his letter to Sotto last Oct. 7.
Several lawmakers, including senators, were dragged into the controversy after being accused of receiving kickbacks in exchange for flood control projects.
‘Very important witness’
The blue ribbon probe is set to resume this Friday, Nov. 14, with a “very important witness” expected to attend.
“All systems go,” Lacson told reporters before the session.
As to the unnamed “very important witness,” the senator said, “It’s still a go, as we speak now.”
“[The witness] will arrive,” Lacson said in Filipino, adding that the witness had already made a draft affidavit.
Although he refused to provide more details about the witness, the senator earlier said this witness would implicate some new and old names in the flood control controversy.
“It’s important because it can wrap up everything that can or needs to be known leading up to the prosecution and conviction,” Lacson said in a forum last week.
Aside from the said witness, 19 members of the House of Representatives, including former Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, will also be invited to this Friday’s meeting.
The invitation to the House members will be coursed through the office of Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, Lacson also said. (Maila Ager © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
