Corruption with no mastermind: Lacson clarifies blue ribbon committee findings

Please allow us to provide important context regarding Professor Randy David’s May 10, 2026 column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (“Corruption with no mastermind”), which focused on the investigation into anomalous flood control projects by the Senate blue ribbon committee chaired by Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson.

In his column, Prof. David suggests that one of the report’s conclusions is that there is no mastermind in the corruption. We wish to address this on two counts.

First, the blue ribbon committee’s investigation remains active. The privilege speech Sen. Lacson delivered on May 5 contained the Chairman’s Progress Report, and authorized the transmission to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman of evidence gathered in hearings thus far, but it does not represent the final findings of the committee.

Second, what Sen. Lacson found—based on evidence presented so far—is that there is no overall mastermind because the corruption attendant to the flood control projects appears to have been distinct and separately committed. While conspiring actors may be identified among former House and Senate officials, the hearings so far painted a picture of systemic, parasitic greed involving organized syndicates within certain district engineering offices.

No single person—not even the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary—had the absolute authority to order the construction of substandard ghost projects across the board. That said, Sen. Lacson remains open to evolving his assessment as further testimony unfolds in future hearings.

Sen. Lacson is equally clear that certain practices considered legal have kept the door open to corruption—and his privilege speech put forward concrete proposals to close them. These include: removing “allocables” and “leadership funds” proposed by the DPWH; strengthening the Office of the Ombudsman and establishing clearer definitions of beneficial ownership and conflict of interest; imposing a strict prohibition and stiffer penalties against government employees gambling in casinos; digitizing the statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth and personal data sheet; enacting a comprehensive whistleblower protection law to strengthen oversight of government projects; and facilitating the recall of Commission on Audit auditors from their auditee agencies to the central home office to ensure independent and accountable reporting.

As Sen. Lacson said in his privilege speech: “The road to full accountability is long. But we must start to agree somewhere. This Chairman’s Report is a decisive step forward. We owe it to the witnesses who spoke up, to the experts who provided evidence, and most importantly, to the millions of Filipinos who find themselves neck-deep in floodwaters every time a storm hits. We cannot let their efforts—and ours—go to waste.”

Joel Locsin,