Laguna 4th District Rep. Benjamin Agarao Jr. stepped into the hot seat on Tuesday — and came out swinging. Appearing before the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), the lawmaker forcefully rejected any ties to contractors Pacifico and Cezarah Discaya, the couple accused of orchestrating multimillion-peso anomalies in flood control projects.
Agarao, one of the names dragged into the growing scandal, said he was blindsided by the allegation. “Wala po. Hindi ko personal na kilala ang mag-asawang Discaya… nagulat ako bakit ako nadawit,” he told the panel during its first-ever livestreamed hearing. He also pointed out a key detail: from 2022 to 2025, the period when the alleged kickbacks proliferated, he wasn’t even the sitting congressman.
Far from being flush with pork, Agarao said his district — one of Laguna’s largest but also one of its poorest — consistently received minimal national allocations. Talk of “billions,” he insisted, doesn’t square with reality. “Hindi kami malakas, hindi target ang aming distrito,” he said, arguing that if funding were actually based on need, his area would have seen far more support and far fewer crumbling public works.
With the ICI dragging more names into the spotlight and testimonies piling up, Agarao’s counterpunch was clear: Don’t mistake poverty-stricken districts for power players — and don’t pin a billion-peso scheme on someone who wasn’t even in office.
Screenshot from ICI YT Channel