Senator Alan Cayetano turned to Facebook Live on Tuesday to knock down a wave of accusations tied to Taguig’s lakeshore, insisting that the contested Bicutan property along Laguna Lake has never left government hands and functions today as a public park. He characterized the fixation on the area as baseless chatter, arguing that no private reclamation effort exists there at all.
His remarks landed soon after Senator Panfilo Lacson’s office circulated a press statement detailing supposedly fresh discoveries from the minority leader’s independent inquiry. Cayetano did not soften his language, labeling Lacson a “Marites”—local slang for someone who peddles gossip—and dismissing the material against him as legally worthless. “That senator-judge has been trolling me almost every day. It’s all just gossip, or, as they say, inconclusive, argumentative, and hearsay,” he said.
The Taguig senator framed the whole exercise as personal, contending that Lacson had every option to hand the matter to the agency equipped to examine it, yet opted to aim the findings squarely at him instead. He extended what he called an open invitation for a walkthrough of the site. “So, if Senator Lacson—our senator-judge-troll—wishes to inspect the developments at the lake, he is most welcome,” he said. Cayetano also pointed out that the work in question unfolded across the Aquino, Duterte, and Marcos Jr. administrations and moved forward through government-to-government arrangements.
Lacson, for his account, tied the newest disclosures to a late-night session with Philippine Reclamation Authority officials. “Our Taguig City case study has opened a ‘cauldron of worms’ after my meeting with Philippine Reclamation Authority officials last night—from ghost slope protection projects to illegally reclaimed tracts of land covering Laguna Lake,” he wrote on X. He said he intends to pursue the effort until those responsible for what he called flagrantly illegal conduct end up jailed, working alongside the Ombudsman, DPWH, PRA, and the Laguna Lake Development Authority, and pledged to forfeit reclaimed land to the state.
Drawing on statements from PRA personnel, Lacson leveled a harassment charge against Cayetano, claiming the senator leaned on those officials during the 2025 budget talks to keep them from probing the reclamation activity. “The same officials likewise disclosed physical intimidation when they conducted [an] on-site inspection along C6 in the Lakeshore area where the illegal reclamation activities are taking place,” he said.
Prior rounds of the dispute saw Lacson connect Cayetano to lakeshore development lacking clearances from bodies such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, financed through appropriations earmarked for slope protection. His office forwarded its evidence to the Ombudsman last week, attaching recommendations for plunder, graft, and malversation, and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is expected to revisit the matter when it reconvenes.
Among the more striking claims, Lacson described Cayetano as effectively steering DPWH activity in Taguig, with district engineers allegedly risking removal for acting without clearance and a purported 33-percent kickback arrangement baked into city projects. He further alleged a scheme of reusing images from finished contracts to support billing on ostensibly new work.
The full sum of public money Lacson attaches to the supposedly irregular Taguig projects reaches P14.4 billion, spanning 2020—when Cayetano held the House speakership—through 2025. Cayetano, who has repeatedly called the accusations sweeping and excessive, maintains he will meet them directly rather than dodge.
