Incoming Sen. Ping Lacson Speaks on “Pork Barrel” Funds
PING LACSON – The returning Senator claimed that some senators now allegedly get P5 to P10 billion ‘Pork Barrel” while a congressman received P15 billion.
Some of the winners of the 2025 Senatorial Election are returning senators. One of them is Sen. Lacson who was a member of the Alyansa Para Sa Pagbabago senatorial slate endorsed by Pres. Bongbong Marcos.
In 2022, Lacson ran for president alongside former Senate Pres. Tito Sotto who led the upper chamber during the 18th Congress. However, their tandem in the presidential and vice presidential race was not successful.
After three (3) years since their election loss, former senators Ping Lacson and Tito Sotto both made it to the Senate Magic 12. Sotto is also one of the winning senatorial bets of the Alyansa.
Ahead of the opening of the 20th Congress, incoming Sen. Ping Lacson filed a bill that aims to regulate the social media use with a propose ban for minors. Recently, he also revealed to One News about his alleged discovery about the Pork Barrel of some senators and a congressman.
Based on a report on Inquirer, returning Sen. Ping Lacson claimed that there are allegedly some senators now who receive P5 billion “Pork Barrel” while there are those who got P10 billion. He also claimed that one congressman allegedly received as much as P15 billion.
“Well, after it was declared unconstitutional, there are now senators with P5 billion, some even with P10 billion. And there’s a congressman with as much as P15 billion,” he expressed.
Incoming Sen. Ping Lacson recalled that the Supreme Court has declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or more popularly known as Pork Barrel unconstitutional 12 years ago. He stressed that then, senators only had P200 million in PDAF fund while the House of Representatives members had P70 million.
Lacson stressed that he and former Sen. Franklin Drilon were able to successfully remove the funds for flood control projects. Based on the report, he described the “Pork Barrel” as a root cause of illegal activities on public funds.
“We succeeded in removing them in the bicam before we termed out in 2022. Now they’re back with a vengeance,” the incoming Senator said.
Aside from the “Pork Barrel”, incoming Sen. Ping Lacson also noticed the multi-billion budget allotted for a “small town” and a “very small barangay”.