Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Monday, March 2 defended himself against critics who questioned him for not scheduling the 18 former military personnel to the Senate investigation into the anomalous flood control projects saying this may turn into a circus.

Lacson is referring to the 18 ex-Marine officials who were allegedly tapped to transport P805-billion kickbacks from flood control projects to some politicians by former Rep. Zaldy Co, explaining that their stories lacked credibility at the onset.

“If we allow the 18 to appear, it may become a circus. It's like inviting people to a joyride, especially if we give them a platform knowing that their stories do not add up at the outset - if they are lacking in believability or incredible. Why dignify them if that's the case?” said Lacson, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that is investigating the flood control mess, in an interview on DZMM radio.

Lacson said that if all the details of the 18 ex-soldiers were true, the cash delivery scheme they purported to have implemented would not have finished until 2028 at the earliest.

“Even as we speak, I continue to fact-check the claims. It would be hard to call a hearing if these were lacking in believability,” he pointed out.

Lacson also questioned if CO had access to the entire P805-billion considering there are other personalities who admitted to receiving and facilitating kickbacks from ghost projects.

“Of the P805-billion that was supposedly delivered, how much was left for Co, zero? Was he just a messenger? So we're talking here of trillions of pesos in kickbacks,” he pointed out.

“It's hard to mentally compute the figures involved. But P805 billion just for one person? As chairman of the House appropriations committee, Co has the power to make insertions but he has limited access to implementation,” he added.

Moreover, Lacson said he is still looking into the reason why many of the ex-Marines were dishonorably discharged.

Lacson, former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, said this is important to know this, being a former member of the uniformed services.

“To be discharged dishonorably, there is due process to be followed. What kind of administrative cases did they face? Did it involve moral turpitude or grave misconduct? It is important to know so we can assess their credibility. We are assessing the credibility of the source and the credibility of the information,” he said.

“What I am saying is that for the majority in the Senate, if we start a hearing and end up citing the 18 in contempt, we would be painted as the villains for 'harassing' them. How do we deal with the 18 if they lie?” he added.

Later, in his privilege speech during the Senate’s plenary session, Lacson expounded on his disbelief on the P805-billion worth of paper bills that supposedly were encashed from the country’s bank reserves over the years.

This is because the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the total physical cash in 2024 stood at P2.7-trillion that year.

This would mean that P400-billion or half of the P805-billion amount of the P2.7-trillion of physical cash of 114 million Filipinos passed through a single individual—“equivalent to around 15% of the total physical cash, both in circulation and those kept in all the bank vaults.”

“Going back to the P805-billion in totality that was solely and exclusively at Zaldy Co’s disposal in 2023 and 2024, if we were to believe the 18 ex-soldiers, then those accumulated over the same period by personalities who are now facing plunder and other cases like former DPWH officials Roberto Bernardo, Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, etc., contractors, etc. must be factored in to compute the aggregate total of absconded monies from the 2023-2024 GAAs (General Appropriations Act),” he said.

“If their statements appear to be demonstrably false and physically impossible to accomplish, wouldn’t convening a hearing effectively validate and dignify disinformation?” he pointed out.