Ombudsman: Escudero, Romualdez to face plunder cases in May

The Office of the Ombudsman announced this Monday that it was set to issue plunder cases against former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and former Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“We have been seriously preparing a case of plunder against former speaker Martin Romualdez and former Senate President Chiz Escudero,” Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said.

“Within the month of May, we’re just tying up many things that have to be there for us to make a case out of it,” he added.

Remulla stated that Escudero and Romualdez were going to be among the many high-ranking individuals set to be filed cases in relation to the flood control scandal this April to May.

He noted that the cases stemmed from the passage of national budgets in 2024 to 2025 that allowed for the ghost projects to take place.

“It’s actually the way that the budget was passed upon by the two houses, and how many things happened to have been implemented because of that,” he explained.

The Ombudsman claimed that aside from the specified dates, the investigations may go back to as far back as the time of Lord Allan Velasco who served as 27th Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2020 to 2022.

Remulla said that they pieced together evidence from witnesses that were called on in previous Senate hearings and that additional details will follow once the case has been officially filed.

“Actually you’ve already heard of the story, you heard it from the testimonies before in the Senate, and if you think about it, there was a conspiracy towards plunder. I think even you can put it together, it doesn’t take a genius to do it,” he told reporters.

Both officials are set to become the latest in a string of cases filed against politicians, Department of Public Works and Highways executives, and private entities connected to the multi-billion peso issue.

Earlier in the day, former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla and other DPWH personnel attended a bail hearing before the Sandiganbayan concerned with an anomalous road dike that eroded in Mindoro last 2024.