Lacson officially resigns as Senate Blue Ribbon chair

Sen. Ping Lacson resigned as chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Oct. 6.

Lacson on Sunday announced that he would step down from the Blue Ribbon Committee after some of his colleagues criticized the panel's investigation into anomalous flood control projects.

"In the course of the current investigation, which has implicated some senators in the flood control mess, a number of our colleagues have expressed disappointment with the 'direction' of the Blue Ribbon Committee, which this representation chairs," the Senate President Pro Tempore wrote in his resignation letter submitted to Senate President Tito Sotto.

"Furthermore, some senators publicly and secretly pursue the narrative that I am zeroing in on several of my colleagues while purportedly protecting those members of the Lower House perceived to be the principal actors in the budget anomalies related to the substandard and ghost flood control projects."

Lacson called these narratives "categorically false" and "misrepresentations" by critics opposed to efforts to uncover the flood control anomalies.

Addressing his colleagues in the Senate, Lacson said, "There are no political considerations in any and all my actions related to my handling of the committee hearings and other related activities."

He added that he does not have further political plans after his term ends in 2031.

For his part, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan hopes that Lacson will reconsider his decision to resign.

"My sense was and is that while there were a number of our colleagues in the Majority bloc who disagreed with some earlier public pronouncements made by him, the matter had been threshed out and clarified by him in a majority caucus held last Wednesday, Oct. 1. No one in the majority bloc sought his replacement as Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman," he wrote in a statement.

Pangilinan further urged his fellow majority senators to reaffirm support for Lacson, hoping that this would convince him to stay on.

In Blue Ribbon Committee hearings, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva, ex-Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, and former senator Bong Revilla  were tagged by dismissed Department of Public Works and Highways district engineer Henry Alcantara as being proponents of flood control initiatives.

Former DPWH Usec. Roberto Bernardo also named Co, Revilla, former senator Nancy Binay, and former Senate President Chiz Escudero as among those who allegedly received kickbacks from flood control projects.

Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, meanwhile, was linked to flood control project kickbacks by Co's former security consultant Orly Guteza.

Villanueva, Estrada, Escudero, Romualdez, Co, and Binay have denied the allegations.

Romualdez and Co were invited to attend the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings through an inquiry sent to House Speaker Bojie Dy III.

However, Lacson said on Saturday that the panel's hearing on Oct. 8 was suspended.