Ping warns Palace of cover-up perceptions in ‘Cabral files’

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson has urged Malacañang not to downplay the possible role of Cabinet officials in the anomalous practice of inserting lawmakers' infrastructure projects for kickbacks in the executive's spending plan.

- By MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

Lacson warned the administration to be careful with its statements, lest these be mistaken as a “cover-up,” as he urged the government instead to launch an inter-agency investigation into the executive's role in the flood control mess.

“Instead of pursuing an honest-to-goodness inter-agency investigation by using whatever probative value was unearthed, mainly from the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearings, to prematurely dismiss the probable involvement of some members of the Cabinet as 'hearsay' may be interpreted as a euphemism for 'cover-up,'” the senator said yesterday.

Lacson made the statement after Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said there is "no probative value" to the "hearsay or tsismis" of Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, who said that lawmakers and contractors were in cahoots with Cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries outside the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to insert projects with the agency.