Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said on Tuesday, Dec. 23, that senators who were elected in the May midterm polls can't be among those who had budget insertions in the 2025 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The insertion allegations were made by Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste.

Lacson said the records cited by Leviste, which supposedly showed senators' insertions in the DPWH's 2025 budget amounting to P120 billion, refer to a budget that was approved by the 19th Congress--months before the May polls were held.

"Congressman Leviste should at least qualify his statement with the phrase 'in the 19th Congress' in fairness to the new members of the 20th Congress, including myself and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, among others," he said.

"That said, even during the previous Congresses, I never partook of allocables or pork barrel allocations, or whatever names they were called," he added.

Lacson, a long-time enemy of the pork barrel system, was among the 12 senators who were elected last May. He assumed office on June 30, along with Sotto.

As such, he pointed out he could not have taken part in preparing the national budget for 2025, much less that of the DPWH.

In a radio interview on Monday, Leviste was quoted as saying that senators made P120 billion in insertions to the 2025 budget, based on documents he got from the late DPWH Undersecretary Ma. Catalina Cabral.

He said his mother, Senator Loren Legarda, was listed as having project insertions, although he quoted her as saying she had no knowledge of the projects listed under her name.