Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana challenged Senator Emmanuel Paquiao to prove his accusation on alleged corruption in the acquisition of Philippine Navy frigates.

"Sen Pacquiao, the frigate deal has been thoroughly investigated by the senate in 2017 and they found nothing anomalous," Lorenzana said on Thursday night.

"In fact, you were in one of the hearings, Senator. Since you seem to be so sure of your allegations, it would be much appreciated if you could provide details of this alleged corruption," he said.

"By the way, Senator, those frigates were delivered last year ahead of schedule and they passed the Navy’s Technical Inspection and Acceptance Committee," he added.

Department of National Defense (DND) spokesman Arsenio Andolong said the defense chief issued the statement in response to a social media card that he saw.

He said the card, which had a picture of Pacquiao with the list of alleged anomalous projects, made rounds in different social media platforms on Wednesday.

However, Andolong admitted it has yet to be determined if the social media card indeed came from Pacquiao or his group." Robina Asido/DMS