‘President Marcos not spared from flood control scandal probe’

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos will not be spared from the Senate’s probe into the multibillion-peso flood control scandal if the evidence points to him, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said yesterday, though noting unsworn allegations made against the President on social media currently hold no legal weight.

“If the evidence points to the President, we can’t do anything about that,” Lacson said in Filipino in an interview on dzBB.

However, the panel chairman dismissed former congressman Zaldy Co’s recent social media claims that kickbacks were delivered directly to the presidential residence.

The former lawmaker made the accusations on Facebook rather than under oath, Lacson pointed out, thus the committee cannot legally adopt them.

“Zaldy Co’s story has no evidentiary value because it was not said under oath,” the senator said.

“What he did was post a story on Facebook. How can we use his story if it is not within the power or jurisdiction of the Blue Ribbon Committee?” he added.

Lacson recalled previously suggesting for Co to visit a consulate wherever he was hiding to formally authenticate his affidavit, but was scrapped when Sen. Ronald dela Rosa raised concerns about the Senate’s inability to cite Co for contempt if he lied from overseas.

Lacson said he applied the same standard to former military whistleblower Orly Guteza, who also implicated the President.

“It was the same with Guteza. He implicated Marcos, but I said if there is no corroboration and Guteza never came back, how will that be explained?” he said.

Lacson readies ‘progress report’

To break the current deadlock in the investigation, Lacson announced he is preparing a “Chairman’s Progress Report” on the flood control scandal, which aims to pave the way for the resumption of hearings and provide crucial case build-up material for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Office of the Ombudsman.

The strategy bypasses the need to wait for the required nine signatures to sponsor the panel’s official partial report on the Senate floor.

“We have drafted a Chairman’s Progress Report. I cannot report out the partial committee report on the Senate floor due to the lack of needed signatures. So, to get it over with, I have thought of drafting the Chairman’s Progress Report, which has a precedent,” Lacson said.

“We owe it to the Filipino people. The Blue Ribbon Committee has conducted eight hearings on the matter, but has yet to come up with even a partial report,” he said.

The upcoming progress report will contain the findings of the pending partial report, complete with visual aids and documentary evidence gathered during the hearings as attachments.

“Rendering the chairman’s progress report is as good as sponsoring the partial report. We can resume hearings once the chairman’s progress report is rendered because the contents of the partial report become a matter of public record,” Lacson said.

He noted that the ombudsman has informally requested a copy of the committee’s findings.

Once hearings resume, Lacson is keen on summoning former speaker Martin Romualdez back to the Senate.