Former Congressman Michael Defensor on Wednesday said then House Speaker Martin Romualdez should be the next to face detention, claiming he and Senator Rodante Marcoleta were being prosecuted ahead of those allegedly behind the multibillion-peso flood control controversy.

“They should imprison Martin Romualdez next. We were arrested first,” Defensor told reporters after he and Marcoleta appeared before the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division for their arraignment on charges of violating Presidential Decree No. 46, which prohibits public officials from receiving gifts and private individuals from giving them.

Defensor suggested that the cases filed against them were politically motivated and stemmed from their roles in exposing alleged irregularities in flood control projects.

He also questioned what he described as unequal treatment of detainees, noting that Marcoleta had been discharged from the Philippine National Police General Hospital after staying there for less than two weeks, while former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan has remained confined at the facility for about two months.

“Rodante Marcoleta stayed a bit at the hospital while Manuel Bonoan has been there for two months,” Defensor said.

Defensor was previously linked to 18 individuals who described themselves as former congressman Zaldy Co’s “bagmen,” claiming they delivered cash-filled luggage to several public officials and personalities.

Marcoleta, meanwhile, chaired the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee under then Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, which conducted hearings on the allegations made by the supposed bagmen.

On 3 July, the Office of the Ombudsman filed charges of plunder and violation of Presidential Decree No. 46 against Marcoleta and Defensor, along with businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.

During Wednesday’s arraignment, Defensor and Marcoleta pleaded not guilty to the PD 46 charges before the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division.

Marcoleta had earlier entered a similar plea before the anti-graft court’s Third Division, where he is separately facing plunder and another PD 46 case.

Since the filing of the criminal charges, Marcoleta, Defensor, Espiritu and Viray have been detained at the Quezon City Jail–Male Dormitory after the court denied them bail on the non-bailable plunder charge.