Romualdez denies role in 2025 budget graft; tags Chiz Escudero, Zaldy Co

April 22 ------ Former Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez denied any role in the corruption related to the 2025 national budget, stressing there is "no evidence that proves that he committed plunder, conspiracy to commit plunder, or any similar offense that the Ombudsman may be contemplating against me." 

Romualdez released the video statement after the Office of the Ombudsman said it had asked the Sandiganbayan to issue a preventive hold departure order against the former leader of the House of Representatives. Speaker Faustino Dy III has given Romualdez clearance to travel to Singapore from April 20 to May 4 for a medical procedure, but Ombudsman Jesus Crispin "Boying" Remulla told reporters that he had denied Romualdez's request. 

The Ombudsman said Romualdez is being investigated for alleged plunder and money laundering in connection with alleged anomalous government infrastructure. As regards the allegations against him, Romualdez said he was authorizing the release of the affidavit he submitted and all supporting information "so that the Filipino people can judge for themselves who has been transparent, and who is simply being politically targeted."

'No role in bicam, small committee'

"How can I be the mastermind? I was the former Speaker of the House of Representatives. But the House of Representatives is only part of one branch of government: the legislature,” Romualdez said. “It is the product of a constitutional process involving the Executive, the House, and the Senate,” he added.

Romualdez argued that if he were indeed the mastermind, his district in Tacloban should have benefited the most. However, he maintained that there is not a single “ghost project” in his district. “To prove this point, I am authorizing my staff to release to the public the list of all projects in my district that authorities may deem attributable to me. Let the public scrutinize and verify them,” he said.

Romualdez said he was not a part of the bicameral conference committee and the small committee budget deliberations, where insertions were allegedly made after the budget process in the Senate and the House. "With respect to how the budget was deliberated in Congress, let me say this categorically: I was not a part of the BiCam and the Small Committee budget deliberations," Romualdez said. 

The former House speaker said he was only informed of the overall results of the budget deliberations, but not the specific details: “Yes, I was updated on the general outcomes of the deliberations, but I had no visibility into the specific details of the discussions, including the amendments or insertions approved during these closed-door deliberations.” "However, two people were instrumental in making those budget decisions: Chiz Escudero and Zaldy Co," he added.

GMA News is getting comments from the camps of Escudero and Co and will publish them as soon as they are available. Romualdez added that if anyone bears command responsibility over the budget, it would be the Executive branch. “If corruption were to occur on the scale alleged in recent months, it is clear that it would not happen at the level of general legislative approval alone. It happens at the level of execution of the General Appropriations Act,” he said. “That is why command responsibility is more logically attributed to the Executive branch, where there is actual supervision, operational control, and on-the-ground implementation, rather than to a collegial legislative body whose constitutional role is deliberation and appropriation,” Romualdez added.

The former House Speaker also said he would not remain silent on the allegations against him. “I will not keep quiet anymore. I will face this head-on, and I will speak with facts. I did not hide. I did not run. I did not evade scrutiny," Romualdez said. "I faced it head-on, within the proper channel, because I know there is no evidence that proves I committed plunder, conspiracy to commit plunder, or any similar offense that the Ombudsman may be contemplating against me,” he added.

'Baka hindi bumalik, e'

Regarding the preemptive HDO, Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said, "While the cases [complaints] are pending before the Office of the Ombudsman, the teams find it necessary to seek this remedy so as not to jeopardize the cases." “They do not want the respondent to abscond and evade office processes. Based on the details on the Sandiganbayan website, the Ombudsman’s request for PHDO on Romualdez was raffled to the Seventh Division today, April 21,” Clavano said.

Remulla said Romualdez was supposed to have a check-up in Singapore. "They were trying to ask us to allow him to leave. But because we have a bulletin, a lookout order with Immigration about those who are under investigation, we did not respond favorably to the request that he be allowed to leave,” Remulla said. “Actually, they were burning the lines yesterday and up to this morning. I held my ground. I said, when you join the government, you already surrender your right to travel, especially to another jurisdiction, especially if you're under investigation. Baka hindi na bumalik eh [He might not return],” he added.

'I won't be a scapegoat'

Romualdez then cited that the national budget is not drafted by the Speaker of the House alone but conceived collectively by all members of Congress. “I will not allow myself to be turned into the scapegoat so that others who are actually accountable can walk away clean. If this is a political play to push me out and close the story, tarnishing my name and my reputation, then I am telling everyone now: I will not go quietly, and I will not go alone," Romualdez said. "I will not be the fall guy for other people’s corruption,” he added. 

Romualdez said the national budget is not conceived, executed, implemented, bid out, supervised, and completed by one congressman or even by Congress alone. “There are emerging indications that certain sectors are attempting to weaponize individuals, including Zaldy Co, to construct a narrative that serves their own interests. So, when the legal process is being used against me as a political demolition job, then, I will have no choice but to defend myself,” he said. "And certainly not by the Speaker of the House. The budget deliberation does not stop in the House. The Senate also conducts its own deliberations, reviews its own version, and plays its own role in shaping the final budget,” Romualdez added.

He called on the Ombudsman to follow the evidence because public pressure is not tantamount to prosecutorial duty. “What I ask of the Office of the Ombudsman is simple: follow the rule of law and due process. This is a serious matter, and it should be handled with seriousness, not with haste, theatrics, or shortcuts," Romualdez said. "I am ready and willing to respond to every allegation in the proper forum, through the proper pleadings, motions, and submissions that the law allows,” he added.

Source: gmanetwork.com