(UPDATE) SEN. Panfilo Lacson said the investigation on the ghost flood control projects led to reforms in crafting the national budget and the freezing of at least P21.7 billion in bank accounts owned by persons linked to the anomaly. Lacson, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, on Monday resumed the inquiry on the reported flood control bribery scandal as the panel is finishing the partial report on the controversy. Resigned Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan and nine others earlier subpoenaed to attend the inquiry were present at the public hearing. Bonoan returned to the country on Sunday after months in the United States to accompany his sick wife. Rep. Leandro Leviste, who claimed to have incriminating documents from the late Public Works undersecretary Catalina Cabral, was also present. However, resigned representative Elizaldy Co and his former alleged security detail Orly Guteza — who were also summoned — failed to attend the inquiry. Lacson earlier said Bonoan deliberately fed false data to Malacañang regarding questionable flood control projects, possibly to weaken or discredit the inquiry on the alleged anomaly. Lacson said Co and Guteza will be issued a show cause order to explain why they failed to attend the inquiry. “If we are unsatisfied [with their response] then we will cite them in contempt and eventually issue a warrant of arrest,” he said. He said that during the inquiry, the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office was exposed as the epicenter of the “biggest corruption saga in recent history.” The committee uncovered an elaborate conspiracy in siphoning funds from the country’s national budget intended for flood control projects that protect the lives and properties of residents in low-lying areas. As of the latest count, at least P21.7 billion in bank accounts and other forms of assets have been frozen upon order by the Court of Appeals. Lacson said individuals were also placed under the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program to help strengthen the evidence, while committing to return agreed amounts under the signed memorandum of agreements with the WPP, toward the logical conclusion of cases involving plunder, malversation of public funds through falsification, violations of anti-graft laws, and other crimes. Lacson said the flood control investigation had paved the way for the implementation of landmark reforms in the national budget process such as the livestreaming and opening to the public the bicameral conference committee proceedings that detailed the budget amendments, as well as the availability of transparency portals, to ensure that no vague or undefined infrastructure projects are included in the General Appropriations Act. ‘Shut the f... up’ Lacson slammed critics of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee conducting the investigation on the alleged “ghost” flood control projects as he advised them to “shut up.” He warned “skeptics, detractors, and hijackers who exploit the vulnerabilities and anger of our people to deepen the fault lines of our nation during these trying times.” “Your noise will not silence the truth; neither does it provide any help in our investigation,” the Senate president pro tempore said in his opening statement. “Your noise cannot convict — and won’t even indict the malefactors in this flood control mess. Only evidence does,” Lacson said. “To say that the Blue Ribbon Committee is useless is not only insensitive to its members but an insult to our fellow Filipinos who have consistently followed our hearings and participated in the trillion-peso march,” Lacson said. “They include — the clergy, students, ordinary workers and all concerned citizens who became aware and exposed to unbridled and systemic corruption mainly made possible by the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings,” he said. “And the media who serve as a powerful tool in bringing to the households, eateries, barbershops, etc. the details of each and every hearing of your Blue Ribbon Committee,” Lacson added. “With all that being said — as the chairman of this committee — I say to you: Shut the f... up!” he said.