The Office of the Ombudsman has seemingly singled out former Speaker Martin Romualdez in its ongoing investigations into the multibillion peso flood control scandal despite numerous allegations implicating multiple public officials in the issue, a lawyer said.

Atty. Ade Fajardo, a lawyer and spokesperson for Romualdez, questioned the Ombudsman’s supposed fixation on pursuing a case against the representative from the first congressional district of Leyte.

He maintained that recent developments and circumstances around the case merely proved that state investigators had no sufficient proof that the lawmaker was involved in the anomalous scheme.

“We can not understand why they are giving so much attention to singling out Rep. Romualdez when there is no credible evidence,” Fajardo said in a statement.

Referencing information that has been gathered since the probe began, the lawyer expressed concern over the presumed absolvement of public officials not named Romualdez.

Fajardo said that the matter was most evident when the self-proclaimed bodyguards of former congressman Zaldy Co recanted their accusations, some of whom were used by the Ombudsman in its case against the lawmaker that was under preliminary investigation.

“All the high-ranking officials of the government were seemingly absolved when the Maleta boys recanted and there were many individuals that said that there were no deliveries, but it seems the Ombudsman is choosing to single out our client,” he explained.

Fajardo likewise expressed that the anti-graft body could not simply disregard the decision of the “Maleta boys” and Orly Guteza to withdraw their statements given the fact that they submitted a “formal affidavit” rather than a “press release.”

It is worth noting that aside from the five bodyguards of Co that publicly withdrew their statements, the supplemental counter-affidavit submitted by the camp of the former Speaker to the Ombudsman also included testimonies from 25 of their colleagues–all of whom denied that deliveries of cash-filled luggages took place.

Even with the numerous testimonies that disprove that Romualdez or any public official received deliveries of cash, Fajardo said that the investigative body was “still bent” on implicating the lawmaker as a “mastermind” of the scandal.

“That’s why we are puzzled why they are treating the former Speaker this way. It seems they are taking it too personally,” the lawyer said.

‘Not a numbers game’

In a recent press briefing, Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said that their office had a total of 42 witnesses to establish its case against Romualdez.

Of the numerous witnesses, 14 came from the “Maleta boys” that decided to sustain their allegations amid supposed external pressure based on their lawyer Atty. Levito Baligod.

Clavano, however, noted that they did not want to turn the case into a “numbers game” and that they were keen on identifying who among the group of individuals was stating the truth.

“What we want to clarify here is the quality of what people are saying. If the investigators can prove that indeed a lot of irregularities attended the recantation, then the quality of the first affidavit must be upheld,” he said concerning the individuals that recanted their statements.

Adding to his prior remarks, the official noted that they had information that there were various circumstances surrounding the recantations including a possibility that the individuals were paid off.

With state prosecutors and the camp of Romualdez submitting their subsequent responses and comments to evidence presented in the preliminary investigation, Clavano said that it could be assumed that the matter was already submitted for resolution.

If the Ombudsman’s panel of investigators deem that the case had prima facie evidence to prove that Romualdez was guilty of the alleged crimes, a case would be filed to the Sandiganbayan.

Romualdez along with Co and other government officials were alleged to have committed plunder, graft, bribery, and money laundering in connection to an alleged P56-billion infrastructure kickback that Romualdez received between 2022 to 2025.