The most dangerous defense anyone can offer a sitting president is this:
“Walang alam ang presidente.”

Yet that is the shield Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson now holds up for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as he confirms the existence of a staggering ₱100-billion insertion list and a 25 percent SOP system embedded deep in the country’s infrastructure allocations.

It is a shield that cuts both ways.
Used clumsily, it does not merely absolve the President — it exposes him.
It paints a portrait of a leader so detached, so unguarded, or so compromised that undersecretaries can freely invoke his name to move billions without him even knowing.

And with Senator Imee Marcos’ explosive INC-stage allegations that her own brother is using drugs — that his impairment has affected the nation — the “walang alam” defense stops being a shield and starts sounding like confirmation.

THE ₱100 BILLION INSERTION LIST — AND THE TWO MEN AT THE CENTER OF IT

Lacson now affirms what had long circulated in whispers and leaked documents:
Yes, the ₱100-billion insertion list was real.
Yes, lawmakers believed it carried presidential approval.
Yes, the President’s name was invoked.

But Lacson insists Marcos had no knowledge of the operation.

Instead, he points to two individuals at the heart of the supposed misrepresentation:

Trygve L. Olaivar

Former Undersecretary, Department of Education

Adrian Carlo “Ador” Bersamin

Undersecretary, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO)

According to Lacson, these two men made it appear that Malacañang wanted the allocations arranged — that the President himself had blessed these billions for release.

In short, Lacson’s entire defense of the President hinges on the actions — or misrepresentations — of Olaivar and Bersamin.

Whether they acted alone, or for someone else, is a question Lacson leaves hanging.

THE 25% SOP — SUITCASES, CASH, AND THE IMPLICATION OF IGNORANCE

The saga erupted when Zaldy Co declared publicly that a 25 percent SOP was demanded for the ₱100-billion insertion — a mind-boggling ₱25 billion allegedly intended for the President, delivered in suitcases of cash at hotels and residences linked to the most powerful men in government.

Lacson flatly rejects this claim.
He says Co was misled — made to believe the President wanted the insertion and the SOP, when in reality the President “knew nothing.”

But that explanation opens a darker door.

If ₱100 billion can be arranged and negotiated through the President’s own budget without his knowledge…
If undersecretaries can invoke his name to move allocations…
If contractors and lawmakers can be convinced that suitcases of cash are for Malacañang…

Then what kind of presidency is this?

Because the chaos inside the administration did not end there.

The resignation of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin — the President’s “little President” — and the exit of Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman only deepen the sense that something is fundamentally broken in Malacañang. If the top stewards of the bureaucracy are walking away at the height of a budget scandal, what does that say about who is really in charge?

Who leaves next?
Who takes responsibility?
Who stays silent?

Is this a presidency that is corrupt?
Or a presidency that is not governing?

Neither answer comforts a nation drowning in scandals.

THE PALACE’S OWN ARGUMENT SHATTERED

For weeks, Palace defenders swore by a single line:

“Hindi kailangang mag-insert ang Presidente. NEP niya ’yan.”
The President doesn’t need insertions — the NEP is already his budget.

But Lacson’s revelations destroy that narrative.

Because once Lacson admits that:

  • ₱100 billion was inserted during bicam
  • Lawmakers believed it came from the Palace
  • The President’s name was invoked by undersecretaries

Then the Palace is cornered into an impossible contradiction:

Either the President signed a budget already contaminated without his knowledge…
or he knew more than they claim.

The defense collapses under its own weight.

IMEÉ’S DRUG ALLEGATIONS TURN THE “WALANG ALAM” DEFENSE FROM STRATEGY TO SUICIDE

Then came the moment that turned a scandal into a national crisis.

On the INC stage — before hundreds of thousands — Senator Imee Marcos accused her own brother, the President of the Philippines, of using illegal drugs.
She accused the First Lady.
She accused their son Sandro.
And she claimed these addictions were affecting governance.

The Palace denied everything.
But once those words entered the public bloodstream, they fused with Lacson’s defense in the most devastating way.

Because a President who “did not know” about ₱100 billion moving inside his own budget…
and a President accused by his sister of being impaired…

is no longer defended by innocence.
He is undermined by it.

The line between ignorance and incapacity becomes disturbingly thin.

WHO IS ACTUALLY RUNNING THE COUNTRY?

Lacson may have intended to shield Marcos.
Instead, he has made the public ask the question no administration wants to hear:

If the President did not know… then who is running the Philippines?

Because if two undersecretaries can:

  • invoke the President’s name,
  • negotiate billions,
  • assure lawmakers,
  • move allocations,
  • and shape the national budget —

without the President’s awareness,
then the Palace is not the center of power anymore.

And if the President did know, then the scandal is far worse than misrepresentation — it becomes complicity.

Either way, the nation is staring at a leadership crisis, not a clerical one.

THE REAL STORY

This is no longer about Zaldy Co, nor the SOP, nor the suitcases of cash.

This is about power, control, and the terrifying possibility that the Philippine government has been operating on autopilot — run not by elected leaders, but by people willing to use their names, with or without their knowledge.

Because when the defense becomes
“Walang alam ang presidente,”
the country has every right — every obligation — to ask:

If he did not know, who allowed ₱100 billion to pass?

And if he did know, who is lying to us?

That is the real scandal.
That is the real story history will remember.