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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Lacson: Blue ribbon panel to invite Romualdez, 17 other House representatives to flood control probe

Lacson: Blue ribbon panel to invite Romualdez, 17 other House representatives to flood control probe

Published Nov 11, 2025 02:14 pm

At A Glance

  • Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson confirmed this on Tuesday, November 11, saying he will send the invitation, addressed to current House Speaker Faustino "Bojie" Dy, once he is formally elected again as the chairman of the Senate blue ribbon panel.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will invite former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and 17 other members of the House of Representatives to the continuation of the panel’s inquiry into the anomalous flood control projects.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson confirmed this on Tuesday, November 11, saying he will send the invitation, addressed to current House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy, once he is formally elected again as the chairman of the Senate blue ribbon panel.
“After election this afternoon, we’ll buckle down to work, then we will start sending invitation, through the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Lacson told reporters in an interview after the launching of the new Senate website.
“We’ll invite him (Romualdez), plus the 17 congressmen mentioned by the Discaya couple, including Cong. Eric Yap,” he said.
In a sworn statement, the Discaya couple—contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya—had named 17 congressmen and several Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials who allegedly demanded kickbacks of 10 to 25 percent for awarding flood control projects.
According to the couple, these demands were laid out after their company won bids and they were pressured to pay for projects to proceed without delays.
Because of this, the blue ribbon panel vowed to summon the congressmen mentioned by the Discayas.
Lacson also said he has already requested Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III to request Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to clear the schedule on Friday to give way for the resumption of the hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee.
“Unless Sen. Sherwin has some pressing matters to attend to, because I believe that his scheduled sponsorship of the committee report (on the 2026 national budget) was moved to tomorrow (Wednesday) instead of Thursday,” Lacson said.
“So I just hope there schedule is open on Friday so that the blue ribbon panel can hold the hearing on that day,” he said.
Sought for confirmation, Gatchalian affirmed that the finance panel has decided to give the whole day of Friday, November 14 for the flood control hearing.

Related Tags

flood control probe Ping Lacson Martin Romualdez House of Representatives Senate Blue Ribbon Committee
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