The government is eyeing charges against former Speaker Martin Romualdez over his alleged role in the flood control mess, but Ombudsman Jose Crispin Remulla said plunder would be the least likely to be pursued.
Romualdez, who represents the first district of Leyte, said he is leaving his fate up to the Office of the Ombudsman, maintaining that his conscience is clear amid the accusations against him and that he has been cooperating with the Independent Commission on Infrastructure.
“I willingly submitted myself to the ICI fact-finding process, appeared voluntarily, and remained in the country,” Romualdez said in a statement read by his lawyer Ade Fajardo.
“Out of these proceedings, no credible evidence has ever linked me to any irregularity, and my conscience remains clear,” he added.
In a video statement posted on his official social media pages, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered all findings of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the ICI involving his cousin and resigned Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co to be turned over to the Office of the Ombudsman for formal investigation.
“This is about the information involving former Speaker Martin Romualdez and Zaldy Co. All the information they obtained will be provided to the Ombudsman for investigation,” Mr. Marcos said, noting that prosecutors could pursue cases ranging from plunder to graft or indirect bribery if the evidence supports it.
“We are confident that the Ombudsman will follow the evidence, and wherever the evidence leads us, that is where the investigation will go,” the President said.
Remulla, however, indicated that plunder is the least likely route, citing long-standing jurisprudence that makes the crime “notoriously difficult to prove” and noting that “no one was ever convicted of plunder.”
“The Supreme Court says what the Supreme Court says is the law. When they interpret a statute meant for accountability in a very liberal manner, then we have a problem,” Remulla said, adding that “our option won’t be to file a plunder case.”
“We’re looking at all the facts. Evidence is always the key. Without evidence, you don’t convict anybody,” he added.
As this developed, the ICI said it anticipates at least 1,200 individuals will face criminal prosecution for their involvement in alleged kickback schemes tied to flood control and infrastructure projects.
ICI Commissioner Rogelio Singson, approximately 15 individuals may be subject to legal proceedings for each of the 80 identified anomalous flood control projects.
Consequently, the total number of individuals potentially facing legal action would reach 1,200, he said.
“One ghost project will involve 15 (individuals). We limited it to 80 projects done by notorious contractors named by the President,” said Singson, who served as DPWH secretary during the term of the late former President Benigno Aquino III.
“Eighty, multiply it by 15, do your math. I’m sorry to the Ombudsman, they will drown in papers and case referrals,” he added.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, for its part, said it issued subpoenas to individuals tagged in flood control .
“In line with its investigative mandate, the Group has issued subpoenas to certain individuals pursuant to its authority under [Republic Act] No. 10973. Other concerned persons may be summoned during the course of the ongoing investigation,” CIDG director Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II said.
Morico, however, declined to identify the subpoenaed individuals.
