House Infrastructure Committee co-chair Terry Ridon of the Bicol Saro Party-list on Tuesday pushed back against claims that the previous Congress enabled a “grand conspiracy” behind alleged ₱1.45-trillion budget insertions, saying any accusation must be backed by specific evidence, not blanket assertions.
Ridon, who also chairs the House Committee on Public Accounts, was responding to commentaries suggesting that such insertions “could not have happened without the knowledge and consent” of former Speaker Martin Romualdez and former Senate President Chiz Escudero, and that lawmakers supposedly agreed not to contest the budgets in exchange for their own amendments.
“Without actual evidence, this is a dangerous assertion,” Ridon said.
“Accountability and actual criminal charges do not operate on ‘they must have known’ allegations.”
He said any supposed complicity should be proven through actual line items proposed or defended by Escudero and Romualdez.
Ridon noted that all budget bills in the past have gone through the same process—from committee hearings to plenary debates, bicameral conferences, and ratification by both chambers.
“If the former Speaker, the former Senate President, or any member of Congress abused their power, then we should show the insertions, show the project history and implementation, and file the proper cases for ghost or substandard projects,” he said.
“But if the whole theory is ‘it’s a big number so they must all be guilty,’ that’s not accountability. That’s guesswork.”
