Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson said Wednesday the Blue Ribbon Committee, where he now also sits as chairperson, will undergo an “internal cleansing” after one of its staff was linked to allegations of bribery.
Lacson was referring to staff member Beng Ramos, whom Senator Jinggoy Estrada identified as the person mentioned during a congressional hearing on Tuesday amid simultaneous government investigations into the massive flood control corruption.
Ramos’ name surfaced after Estrada’s office was linked to a supposed “delivery of obligation”—a euphemistic term for ‘bribe’ or ‘lagay’ in Tagalog—by WJ Construction, which received a project contract from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Bulacan.
“Since I am not sure if there is only one Beng Ramos in the Blue Ribbon Committee which I was just elected by my peers to chair, just like DPWH [Secretary] Vince Dizon, maybe I also need to do a simultaneous internal cleansing while buckling down to work,” Lacson said on X.
The former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief turned seasoned legislator emphasized the need to clean the Blue Ribbon panel as it is the one tasked to look into government misconduct and check accountability.
Lacson was formally elected Blue Ribbon Committee chairman on Tuesday afternoon. He had done an internal cleansing of the PNP when he headed it from 1999 to 2001, resulting in the dismissal of rogue cops and other misfits, which led to high public trust.
Earlier Tuesday, former DPWH-Bulacan assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez claimed in a House Infra Committee inquiry that Estrada received a 30-percent kickback from P355-million worth of allocations.
Hernandez showed photos of Estrada with former DPWH-Bulacan first engineering district head Henry Alcantara and screenshots of supposed text messages involving an alleged member of Estrada’s staff identified as Beng Ramos.
In denying the allegations, Estrada said he had no staff member named Beng Ramos since entering the Senate in 2004. He added Ramos was a staff member of the Blue Ribbon Committee, and a former girlfriend of one of his aides.
