Senator Panfilo Lacson raised alarm on Sunday over what he described as “unprecedented” levels of budget insertions made by senators in the proposed 2025 national budget, with allocations amounting to hundreds of billions of pesos.
In an interview with radio dwIZ, Lacson revealed he had secured records detailing the size of the insertions, at least on the Senate side, covering both the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and the bicameral version of the budget.
“We saw the list of senators with large budget insertions. Large. Unprecedented. I’m saying, in the 19th Congress, almost all had an insertion,” Lacson said.
He noted that while some of the allocations were categorized as “for later release” (FLR)—a mechanism that holds funds pending further approval—many still reached staggering amounts. He stressed that even if Malacañang withheld the release of certain FLR items, the scale of the proposed funding remained alarming.
The list, according to Lacson, included senators with continuing terms or those re-elected in the 20th Congress such as Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Ronald dela Rosa, JV Ejercito, Chiz Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Sherwin Gatchalian, Bong Go, Risa Hontiveros, Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Imee Marcos, Robin Padilla, Raffy Tulfo, Joel Villanueva, Mark Villar, and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Former senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Koko Pimentel, Grace Poe, Bong Revilla, Francis Tolentino, and Cynthia Villar were also listed under the 19th Congress.
The controversy comes as several senators have already been implicated in ongoing Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on alleged irregularities in flood control projects. Among those tagged in testimonies for insertions and alleged kickbacks were Villanueva, Estrada, Escudero, Revilla, and Binay.
Lacson, who also chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said he had shared the documents with then-Senate President Vicente Sotto III, describing the allocations as unusually large. He said the magnitude of the insertions signals a deeper institutional problem.
“We cannot deny there is a crisis in the Senate right now, because a number of its members are now involved,” Lacson warned.
