Lacson warns Palace vs 'cover-up' on Cabinet budget insertion claims

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Malacañang should not be quick to brand as “hearsay” the allegations that budget insertions were made by Cabinet officials.

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In a statement on Friday, December 26, Lacson argued that “significant evidence had been unearthed” from the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s flood control investigation.

Instead of outright dismissing the claims and probative value of existing testimonies and documents, he said a genuine inter-agency probe should be conducted to ferret out the truth.

“[T]o prematurely dismiss the probable involvement of some members of the Cabinet as ‘hearsay’ may be interpreted as a euphemism for ‘cover-up’,” Lacson said.

This comes after Palace press officer Claire Castro said she would not recognize the documents Rep. Leandro Leviste (Batangas, 1st District) claims to have on the alleged budget insertions, which include Cabinet members.

When former Public Works Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral died, Leviste said she actually gave him a copy of the documents containing the proponents of budget insertions and allocables.