Lacson claims Taguig ‘ghost’ projects amid word war with Cayetano

These file photos show Sens. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Alan Peter Cayetano. (Courtesy: Avito Dalan/PNA)

Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Saturday alleged the existence of ghost flood control projects in Taguig, a political stronghold of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

The former made this claim in response to the latter’s insinuations during a Saturday livestream regarding Lacson’s declared net worth, which, as claimed by Cayetano, appeared to have doubled based on his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) as of June 30, 2025.

Responding to Cayetano’s push for a Senate investigation into the flood control controversy, Lacson advised his colleague not to get too excited.

“And yes, regarding Blue Ribbon hearings, he should not get bored; there are also ghost (projects) in Taguig,” Lacson said in mixed English and Filipino.

The senator claimed that the Taguig city engineer, like the Bulacan engineers he described in a privilege speech last year, gambled away huge sums in casinos.

“Tolerated or not, their city engineer, a self-styled BGC boy, is using 2 aliases in casinos and has a lifetime win-loss record of almost P0.5 billion in just one of several casino hotels in Metro Manila,” Lacson said.

The lawmaker further alleged that two projects totaling P75 million were not executed out of Cayetano’s P6.79-billion budget insertions under the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“Unlike Senator Cayetano with P6.79 billion in budget insertions under the 2025 GAA, (I have no) insertions a.k.a. pork barrel, since I became a senator. (And I do not have any) 25-percent kickback (for) slope protection and other infra projects. I don’t know about him, but I have consistently refused lobby monies in relation to my job as a legislator,” Lacson said.

“Out of his P6.79-billion budget insertions under the 2025 GAA, 68 out of the 70 projects were implemented. So, only 2 projects, equivalent to around P75 million, are left unreleased or unobligated. In short, a total of P6.715 billion was spent. While you do the math, we will keep digging,” he added.

The senator also denied his colleague’s own allegations regarding his net worth.

“Let me correct Sen. Alan Cayetano’s latest live selling on FB (Facebook) using wild insinuations and black propaganda against me. The net worth on my SALN did not double in 2025 compared to 2022 when I left the Senate. Actually, the increase was more than four times and P244.9 million compared to P58.7 million in 2022 — the year I left government,” Lacson posted on social media.

“Whatever money I have, I definitely earned legitimately through some real estate deals and other legitimate businesses with two other business partners as a private individual, and I paid P10.5 million and P2.8 million (in taxes) respectively as reflected in my ITRs (income tax returns),” he added. — Joel E. Zurbano