The Ombudsman suspended the investigation into the graft case filed against leaders of the House of Representatives over the alleged unlawful insertion of P241 billion into this year’s budget, pending the completion of the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision on the same case.

In a ruling dated March 7, but released only to the media on Tuesday, Ombudsman Samuel Martires said the probe will only proceed after the SC resolves the issue of the constitutionality of the 2025 General Appropriations Act, which was being challenged by Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab through a petition for certiorari and prohibition.

“Wherefore, the foregoing considered, further action on the criminal complaint […] is ordered suspended and held in abeyance until such time that the Supreme Court has resolved with finality the pending petition for certiorari and prohibition,” the verdict reads.

“In the wink of an eye, common sense will remind any student of the law that judicial courtesy dictates that the quasi-judicial body should, and must yield and await the decision of the High Tribunal before acting on the case pending before it,” it added.

Martires also denied a petition to suspend from office Speaker Martin Romualdez, House Majority Leader Manuel Jose "Mannix" Dalipe, former House appropriations committee chairperson Elizaldy Co, and acting chair Stella Quimbo, who are respondents to the case.

Both petitions were filed by allies of former president Rodrigo Duterte earlier this year. The second was spearheaded by former House speaker and Davao Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.

Alvarez argued that the continued stay in office of the House leaders while the investigation is ongoing could prejudice the case, citing their “high positions, power, and influence,” which could “suborn witnesses… and perjure testimony to escape penalty.”

The Ombudsman, however, explained that its disciplinary power is limited and that only the legislative branch has the legal authority to reprimand its members.

“The Office of the Ombudsman possesses full administrative disciplinary authority over public officials and employees, except impeachable officials, members of Congress, and the Judiciary. Since respondents are members of the House of Representatives, this Office does not have the authority to order their suspension,” it stated. 

Alvarez and his allies charged the House leaders with falsification of legislative documents and graft charges before the Ombudsman for “legally” inserting P241 billion in the “blank items” of the bicam report of the 2025 budget, even after it had been ratified by both houses of Congress.

The bicam report was the outcome of the harmonized versions of the House and Senate of the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The insertion of the P241 billion, as alleged in the complaint, defeated the purpose of the bicam conference, which was to reconcile the conflicting provisions of the two versions of the national budget.

Quimbo previously admitted that there were blank items in the bicam but insisted that funding for those items had already been identified before members of the bicam signed the report.

She contended that the enrolled GAB is “complete, with no blank allocations among its more than 235,000 line items,” making the 2025 GAA “lawful, valid, and fully enforceable.”

The controversy over the so-called missing budgets in the bicam report of the 2025 budget was first highlighted by former president Duterte and Ungab, the former appropriations panel chair.

The allegations were also confirmed by Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, a member of the Makabayan bloc, who claimed that there were 14 blank entries, 12 of which were under agriculture-related projects and programs.

In the petition pending before the SC, Ungab and Rodriguez alleged the blanks were “very dubious and dangerous, as the budgets for the said offices and programs remain undetermined.”

“Clearly, the Bicameral Conference Committee committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess jurisdiction when it signed the committee report on 2025 National Budget filled with blanks,” the petition reads.

House leaders have refuted these allegations, with Dalipe attributing them to “a desperate attempt” for political retaliation following the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.