Senator Chiz Escudero and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez will not be included in the list of key officials to face criminal and administrative charges to be recommended by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) over the so-called “Floodgate” scandal, committee chair Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said Sunday.

Lacson said this was mainly because Escudero and Romualdez, who had served as Senate President and House Speaker, respectively, are not considered “primary actors” in the scheme, citing an alleged lack of corroborative evidence to substantiate claims that they received payoffs from anomalous projects.

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

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.”

Lacson 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 Department of Justice’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.

Missing accuser

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, where the senator personally thanked him, indicating that he received the commissions.

Lacson emphasized that Bernardo’s testimony alone is insufficient to establish that Escudero committed wrongdoing unless supported by other corroborating evidence.

The same applies to Romualdez’s case, Lacson said, noting that Romualdez’s accuser, Orly Guteza, has not been located since testifying once before the BRC in the same September hearing as Bernardo.

“In the case of former Speaker Romualdez, there was no acknowledgment like that whatsoever,” Lacson said, although he added that the committee considered Guteza’s testimony and included it in the BRC report.

A draft partial report leaked to the media included recommendations to file corruption charges against Senators Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, and Joel Villanueva, along with several senior DPWH officials.

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

Kickbacks

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

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

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

Romualdez dismissed Guteza’s allegations as a veiled attempt to link him to the supposed corruption scheme, asserting that the property in Forbes Park 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.

Name-dropped?

He later admitted, however, that he had no direct dealings with Romualdez and Co, and that lawmakers demanding commissions may have been 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, having served as Senate president and House speaker, respectively, during the 19th Congress.

They briefly retained their posts into the 20th Congress until they were implicated in the kickback scheme, which resulted in a leadership change.

While Escudero is not included in the BRC report as possibly facing corruption charges, Lacson confirmed the inclusion of Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel 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.

Estrada, Villanueva tagged

Former DPWH-Bulacan district engineer Brice Hernandez told a House hearing last year that Estrada and Villanueva would propose projects in the province under the General Appropriations Act and, once funding was released, would receive 30 percent from each project.

Estrada and Villanueva denied the allegations.

The National Bureau of Investigation filed charges against Escudero, Estrada and Villanueva as early as September last year. Romualdez, however, was not included in the list.

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

The impending approval of the BRC report is allegedly a key factor behind persistent attempts to unseat Senate President Tito Sotto in favor of Senator Loren Legarda, who is reportedly being courted by the minority bloc.