Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday, June 30, that investigators are still trying to confirm information indicating Sen. Rodante Marcoleta received in excess of P75 million linked to infrastructure allocations from his years in the House of Representatives.
Interviewed on One News’ “Storycon,” Lacson said the figure surfaces from a broader review of roughly P500 million in “allocables” believed to be tied to Marcoleta — discretionary items in the Department of Public Works and Highways budget that lawmakers can steer toward projects they select. The portion above P75 million is what his team is now working to validate, he said.
The information remains unverified, Lacson stressed. Several projects have already been flagged for scrutiny, but he said no conclusions have been reached and the gathered material is still being checked. The inquiry, in his words, is a work in progress.
Among the claims under examination is that the allocations were connected to the 2022 appointment of Manuel Bonoan as public works secretary. Lacson has alleged that during Bonoan’s confirmation — when Marcoleta chaired the Commission on Appointments panel on public works — an amount first placed at P1.5 billion was raised, later reduced to P500 million, based on handwritten notes left by the late DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral.
That line of inquiry runs alongside a more advanced case. The Office of the Ombudsman has said it will file plunder charges against Marcoleta before the Sandiganbayan over P75 million in donations he received during the 2025 election period, which prosecutors say went undeclared in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said Monday the case was “for resolution” and that his office was about to file it.
Lacson also pushed back on suggestions that the effort amounts to selective justice. He said the case rests on information and statements Marcoleta himself had placed on record, not on any move to target him.
By Lacson’s own account, receiving an allocation is not in itself unlawful; the allocables would only become a criminal matter if the underlying projects prove to be ghost or substandard — a determination his committee has yet to make.
