Lacson staff offered but refused money from ROW claimant

MANILA, Philippines — His staff had been offered money by a claimant of a road right-of-way (RROW) but refused to accept it, Senator  Panfilo  Lacson disclosed on Friday.

Lacson took to Twitter to commend his staff  for refusing the offer.

“Just learned from sources that my staff refused money offered by a RROW claimant after settling payment issue with DPWH (Department of Public Works and Hghways) in my office yesterday,” he said.

“Couldn’t be more proud of them,” the senator added.

He said  his sources  did not mention the amount offered to his staff.

“But definitely an offer was made by the grateful claimant,” Lacson said in a text message.

Last Monday, some landowner-claimants from Batangas met with  DPWH’s

regional representatives  at the office of the senator.

Instead of arguing and looking for problems, Lacson said he advised the DPWH officials present in the meeting “to simply find a solution.”

“There’s P250 million in ROW appropriations for the Batangas project and there should be no reason to make those poor souls wait,” he said in a statement earlier.

The right-of-way problems in planning a government-funded infrastructure project in the country were part of the special report  earlier  published by  the Philippine Daily Inquirer.  /muf

READ: Right of way problems plague road projects in Batangas