SENATE Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s brother has offered to help in the Senate’s investigation of ghost projects in Taguig City, said Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who has vowed to send his colleague to jail for allegedly taking kickbacks from infrastructure projects.
Lino Cayetano, general manager of the state-run People’s Television Network (PTV4), served as mayor of Taguig, the bailiwick of the Cayetanos, from 2019 to 2022.
In a radio interview, Lacson confirmed that Lino expressed willingness, through an intermediary, to provide information on suspected ghost projects in the city. He also said he has identified the bagman who allegedly brought bribes to Senator Cayetano.
“Someone told me, through an intermediary, that Lino wanted to ask if he could get in touch with me because he wants to help in the investigation since he said he knows many ghost projects in Taguig,” Lacson said.
“I got his number. For now, our meeting hasn’t been set yet. But that’s how it goes. Hopefully, Lino Cayetano doesn’t change his mind,” he added.
In the wake of an intense leadership shakeup in which Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was ousted as Senate president, the rift between the Cayetano brothers spilled into social media, with Lino calling on the senator to stop his social media tirades and to apologize to the Aquino clan for mocking the grandson of the late senator Benigno Aquino Jr.
Probe resumes
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s probe into the flood control bribery scandal will resume after the President’s State of the Nation Address on July 27.
Lacson said his team is validating records covering P6.715 billion worth of projects implemented in Taguig under the 2025 General Appropriations Act, following his public exchange with Senator Cayetano.
He said some projects may be defective, substandard, overlapping or nonexistent, but underscored the information and documents remain subject to verification.
“I will pursue this to its logical conclusion. I will not ‘invent’ or ‘fabricate’ evidence but because of his attack on my integrity, I will exert extra effort to find those pieces of evidence, documentary or testimonial,” Lacson said.
“I will not accept that he would attack my integrity, which I have nurtured throughout my career for more than 50 years,” he added.
Bagman identified
The senator also said he has identified Cayetano’s alleged bagman, whom he accused of accepting bribes from ghost flood control works in Taguig, including those carried out by the disgraced Discaya contractor couple.
He also accused a Taguig city engineer of moving nearly half a billion pesos through a Metro Manila casino under two aliases, about P374 million under one name and about P124 million under the other.
“I have already identified his (Cayetano’s) bagman. We are just gathering the proper evidence,” Lacson said, without naming names.
The senator said the irregularities in infrastructure projects were part of a larger kickback scheme.
He said that in some projects, “the linear distance of one span overlaps with another span so the contractor can save money to pay kickbacks.” “Others were piled on top of each other, and all sorts of things were done to cover up old ghost projects. We will dig through all of that to prove what I am saying, that there are ghost projects in Taguig too,” he added.
Lacson also said Taguig was set aside when his committee was buried in evidence from anomalous infrastructure projects in Bulacan, Occidental Mindoro and Pampanga in the 19th Congress.
“Now that he has stirred this issue, I told my staff: let’s focus on Taguig so we can show and explain where the P6.7 billion went in a single year,” he said.
Asked about claims that his focus on Taguig is personal, Lacson said: “Well, he asked for it, I’ll give it to him.” Lacson said evidence being gathered on questionable infrastructure projects in Taguig may be submitted directly to the Office of the Ombudsman, brought before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, or pursued through both channels.
“The ultimate destination of this, of course, is the Ombudsman,” Lacson said, adding that the documents could form part of the inquiry of the Blue Ribbon Committee or be immediately forwarded to the anti-graft body for fact-finding and possible preliminary investigation.
Lacson also expressed confidence that such records could assist the anti-graft body in determining whether sufficient grounds exist to file charges.
The senator said he is coordinating with Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Sen. Erwin Tulfo, and would provide the panel with documents and names of possible resource persons for a future inquiry.
He also maintained that the Taguig review concerns possible corruption and has no connection to the impeachment trial or the senators’ political positions.
“That’s how he is. When he faces an issue, he will drop names of those close to the administration, or resort to name-calling, to muddle the issue. That’s called squid tactics — try to muddle the issue and hope he can get away. That’s his technique and pattern up to now,” Lacson said.
“The impeachment has nothing to do with this. The issue here is corruption,” he added.
Lacson also dismissed Cayetano’s claim that he and Tulfo were acting on orders of Malacañang, describing it as another attempt to divert attention from the real issue.
