Escudero, Romualdez excluded in BRC report, probe continues — Lacson

Former congressional leaders, Senator Chiz Escudero and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, will not be listed among officials facing criminal or administrative charges recommended by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) in its investigation of alleged corruption in flood control projects, BRC chair Ping Lacson said Sunday.

According to Lacson, Escudero and Romualdez, who had served as Senate president, House speaker, respectively, are not considered “primary actors” in the scheme, citing the lack of corroborative evidence that will prove claims that they received payoffs from anomalous projects.

“While their names were mentioned, there was no direct indication that they received the money,” he said in Filipino in a radio interview.

The supposed lack of sufficient proof against Escudero and Romualdez, however, does not necessarily imply that they are already off the hook, as they will be subjected to “further investigation.” 

The chairman separately told the DAILY TRIBUNE that the evidence against Escudero, particularly the sworn testimony of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, naming Escudero, along with former senators Bong Revilla and Nancy Binay as recipients of flood control kickbacks, “would not merit the DOJ’s threshold of reasonable certainty of conviction.”

“Anyway, we are continuously evaluating the transcripts of the committee hearings in order to come up with a truly evidence-based and fair recommendation in the yet-to-be-finalized committee report,” Lacson said in a Viber message. 

Escudero was accused of receiving P160 million in kickbacks from flood control projects that Bernardo allegedly delivered to the senator’s friend and campaign donor, Maynard Ngu, in the first quarter of 2025. 

In a Senate hearing in September last year, Bernardo alleged that he met with Escudero in July of the same year at a bar in Taguig, wherein the senator personally thanked him, indicating that he received the commissions.

Escudero had vehemently denied Bernardo’s “malicious allegations and innuendos.”

Supporting evidence necessary to link Escudero, Romualdez in kickbacks

Lacson emphasized that Bernardo’s testimony alone is insufficient to establish that Escudero committed a wrongdoing, unless there is other evidence to corroborate such claims.

This also applies to Romualdez’s case, whose accuser, Orly Guteza, has never been located again after testifying once in the BRC in the same hearing with Benardo in September. 

“In the case of former Speaker Romualdez, there was no acknowledgement like that, whatsoever,” Lacson averred, though he mentioned that the committee took consideration of Guteza’s testimony and added it in the BRC report.

A draft of the partial report leaked to the media includes, among others, a recommendation of corruption charges against Senators Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, and Joel Villanueva, along with other top DPWH officials.

Lacson, however, clarified that the report has different categories and that Escudero is not recommended for prosecution but for further investigation, the same as Romualdez.

Similar to Escudero, Romualdez was also accused of receiving kickbacks from the government, though it was unclear whether they were solely from flood mitigation projects. 

Guteza alleged he regularly delivered suitcases stuffed with “basura”—code for kickbacks—to Romualdez’s residence in McKinley, Taguig. Each suitcase allegedly amounts to approximately P48 million.

Guteza presented himself as a former aide of fugitive ex-Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, now a subject of a warrant for his role in the flood control scam. 

Romualdez dismissed Guteza’s allegations as a veiled attempt link him to the supposed corruption scheme, asserting that the property had been under renovation since January 2024 and was occupied only by construction workers.

In a separate BRC hearing in September last year, big-time contractor Curlee Discaya also tagged Romualdez and Co as among House lawmakers receiving 10 to 25 percent kickbacks for every flood control project awarded to his firms.

He, however, eventually admitted that he had no direct dealings with Romualdez and Co, and that lawmakers demanding commissions may be using their names to gain leverage.

These deficiencies, according to Lacson, must be established first before the BRC recommends the filing of any charges against Escudero and Romualdez. 

Both Escudero and Romualdez were top leaders of Congress in the 19th Congress. They briefly managed to retain the posts until the 20th Congress, until they were implicated in the kickback scheme, resulting in a leadership change. 

Jinggoy, Joel's inclusion confirmed

While Escudero is not included in the BRC report, possibly facing corruption charges, Lacson confirmed the inclusion of Estrada and Villanueva, both accused of receiving at least 30 percent “SOP” or commissions from flood control projects in Bulacan.

Villanueva and Estrada allegedly had projects in 2023 and 2025 in Bulacan amounting to P600 million and P350 million, respectively. 

Ex-DPWH-Bulacan district engineer Brice Hernandez told a House hearing last year that Estrada and Villanueva would propose projects in the province under the GAA, and once the funding is released, would get 30 percent from each project. Estrada and Villanueva belied the allegations. 

The National Bureau of Investigation had already filed charges against Escudero, Estrada, and Villanueva as early as September last year. 

As for Romualdez, no formal criminal charges have yet been filed, though he is facing a plunder complaint filed by the Independent Committee for Infrastructure before the Ombudsman.

The BRC report, according to Lacson, would be discussed by the majority anew today, Monday, to determine whether it would be taken up for plenary consideration. Lacson assured that any amendments to the report are welcome. 

The impending approval of the BRC report is allegedly a key factor behind the persistent attempts to unseat Senate President Tito Sotto in favor of Senator Loren Legarda, who is purportedly being courted by the minority bloc. The nine-member opposition comprised Escudero, Estrada, and Villanueva, among others.