"Almost all" senators during the past 19th Congress made total insertions worth P100 billion into the current P6.352-trillion national budget or General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025.

This was revealed by a flabbergasted Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson on Sunday, Sept. 28, as the Blue Ribbon Committee that he chairs continued to look into the issue of flood control projects and insertions.

Lacson, known for his hardline stance against corruption, cited documents he gathered indicating that these were individual insertions, although they were eventually held for later release (FLR).

"Sa Senate pa lang, at least P100 bilyon. Nagulat nga ako, sa individual insertions ito, ito naka-FLR ngayon (For the Senate, the insertions amounted to at least P100 billion. I was surprised because these are individual insertions although they were held 'for later release')," he said in an interview on DZMM radio.

"Pagkalalaki. Never pa ako nakakita kasi noong araw di pa declared unconstitutional ang PDAF nandoon lang sa hundreds of millions. E ngayon nakita ko ang total, kabuuan at least P100 billion," he added.

(It was humongous. I have never seen such amounts. Before the Priority Development Assistance Fund was declared unconstitutional in 2013, 'pork' amounted to hundreds of millions. Now it's at least P100 billion total for 24 senators alone).

As for the their legislative chamber, the House of Representatives, Lacson said he had yet to scrutinize their list of insertions. "Ang haba ng listahan din (The list is long)."

Lacson said he may ask the agencies concerned during the upcoming budget deliberations why such insertions were allowed.

"Sa budget deliberation pwede ko tanungin ito bakit pinayagan ito. Ang pagbusisi, lalo sa plenary, gusto kong malaman ilan sa siningit na insertion ang na-release at papaano na-implement," he said, as he added that he was concerned about the release of unprogrammed appropriations.

(At the budget deliberation, I can ask why these insertions were allowed. In scrutinizing the budget especially in the plenary, I want to know how much of the insertions were released and how they were implemented.)

Lacson said that while insertions or amendments per se are not necessarily illegal, they are questionable especially if individual insertions amount to P5 billion or even P9 billion.

Such insertions could threaten the economy because the withheld or diverted funds could have gone to infrastructure programs that were planned and vetted at the barangay, city and regional levels, he said.

Lacson reiterated his call to fellow lawmakers to practice self-restraint in inserting appropriations for locally funded infrastructure projects not just in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) but in other agencies like the Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Transportation (DOTr), whose budgets include infrastructure projects.

He likewise appealed to fellow lawmakers not to avail of the so-called "leadership fund" in the DPWH that allows lawmakers to insert projects at the level of the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

The NEP is the precursor of the GAA or enacted budget measure.