WE write to rectify several misconceptions in your March 8, 2026 editorial regarding the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s draft partial report on the flood control project scandal, which characterized the draft report’s non-release to the public at this time as “lip service to transparency” and even suggested that it smacks of “whitewashing.”

First, the draft partial committee report is precisely that: a working draft, not an official document, and thus cannot be released to the public until it obtains the signatures of majority of the Blue Ribbon Committee’s members — nine out of the panel’s 17 regular members — and is properly filed with the secretary of the Senate. Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, has repeatedly made this clear.