“Face the music, face the charges like every other man should…you should have a lot of pride and dignity in your person.”

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla challenged former House Speaker Martin Romualdez to “man up” and face the allegations against him head on in lieu of the latter’s pending motion for continued hospital confinement.

State prosecutors charged Romualdez with plunder last Monday, accusing him of amassing P7.4 billion in ill-gotten wealth from a combination of infrastructure projects between 2022 to 2025 while he served as the leader of the House of Representatives.

Aside from the Leyte lawmaker, also charged in the complaint were former congressman Zaldy Co, a member of Romualdez’s household staff, and a president of a money exchanging company for alleged conspiracy in the transactions related to the amount.

With the countless allegations and his labelling as one of the “masterminds” of the multibillion peso flood control scheme, the lawmaker has repeatedly denied any participation in the issue and had claimed that he had become the “scapegoat” of the government.

Remulla, however, persistently maintains that the cases that their office filed were strictly based on evidence and absent of any presumed biases.

As for the recent developments in the case of Romualdez, the Ombudsman explicitly stated that he was “not happy” with the accused’s request to remain confined at a private hospital while tending to his supposed illnesses.

He stressed that all detainees were treated equally, noting that there were some people imprisoned in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) that were “worse off” compared to Romualdez and that “a public hospital is the right place.”

“That’s the reason why there’s no more special jail in Crame, we made sure that it was already taken down. That was what we really wanted to happen, that justice was equal to the rich or the poor,” Remulla said in a press briefing.

Romualdez and Remulla were former colleagues at the House of Representatives with the latter serving his most recent term between 2019 to 2022 as the Cavite 7th District representative before he was appointed as Justice secretary.

The Ombudsman said that he knew the former House leader “very well,” stating that he should “take [the case] with more dignity.”

Remulla said that they would be asking doctors from the Philippine General Hospital to properly assess whether Romualdez was fit to be transported to the New Quezon City Jail - Male Dormitory–the detention facility where he was officially committed.

“This can not become a rule, it should be an exception for extreme cases. It’s very sad that the former Speaker is resorting to this,” he expressed.

The leader of the anti-graft body said that he was not particularly “rejoicing” that Romualdez was under the custody of the BJMP but maintained that he was not necessarily “happy” that the lawmaker was wanting to stay at a hospital.

Remulla said that the development set a bad precedent to the public who were closely monitoring the ongoing investigations into corruption in the government.

“Of course we do not want that. This is not a good sign to the public. They will say that just because he has money he gets to stay at a hospital while the poor get imprisoned,” he stated.

On Friday, the Sandiganbayan Third Division ordered for Romualdez to undergo an independent medical examination at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital due to concerns about the findings of Cardinal Santos Medical Center where he has been confined since 7 September.

The findings of the check up would be utilized by the anti-graft court on determining whether to grant or deny the pending motion of Romualdez’s camp for continued hospital confinement despite the arrest.