Romualdez denies taking kickbacks

The camp of former Speaker Martin Romualdez said Thursday the recommendation that plunder charges be filed against him at the Ombudsman — along with a new set of criminal and administrative charges linked to flood control project anomalies — does not constitute a determination of guilt.

Romualdez’s counsel, Ade Fajardo, took exception to the efforts to pin down the lawmaker, contending that the referral by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) does not amount to a conviction. 

In fact, he said, the report explicitly stated that it was “issued without a finding or conclusion of guilt or liability on the part of former speaker Romualdez.”

“We take note of the DPWH secretary’s statement. However, it is important to clarify that a DPWH ‘recommendation’ is not a finding, much less a determination of guilt,” Fajardo said. 

“It is not true that the ICI has recommended to the Ombudsman that former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez be charged with plunder or other serious crimes related to the flood control or 2025 budget issue,” he added. 

Romualdez’s camp was referring to the 21 November joint referrals by the ICI and the DPWH, urging Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla to pursue plunder, graft, and direct bribery charges against Romualdez and resigned lawmaker Elizaldy Co over the alleged irregularities in the flood control projects. 

The referral contained the sworn testimony of whistleblower Orly Guteza in the Senate investigation in September where he accused Romualdez and Co of receiving kickbacks from flood control projects. 

Guteza, allegedly a former aide of Co, told the senators that he delivered suitcases stuffed with cash amounting to approximately P48 million each to the residences of Romualdez and Co in Makati and Pasig, respectively. 

Romualdez denied the allegations, calling them pilit na pilit (extremely forced) and implied that Guteza had been coached.

The erstwhile House leader dismissed the claim as “impossible,” saying that the property cited by Guteza had been under renovation since January last year, and only construction workers were occupying it.

Co, who is still in hiding abroad despite a warrant from the Sandiganbayan, initially denied Guteza’s allegations, but later “came clean” and corroborated the accusations and implicated Romualdez and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in an alleged kickback scheme.