Selective justice no more
Filipinos abroad ask only that their sacrifices be matched by competent government and honest stewardship.
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Filipinos abroad ask only that their sacrifices be matched by competent government and honest stewardship.
From California, Filipinos and Filipino-Americans are closely watching the filing of plunder charges and the arrest of former House Speaker Martin Romualdez over alleged kickbacks from flood control projects.
For many of our kababayan here, this is more than another political headline from home. It is a test of whether justice in the Philippines can finally reach the powerful — including relatives, friends, and political allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Romualdez, PBBM’s first cousin and once one of the administration’s most influential figures, has been accused in a plunder case reportedly involving P7.4 billion.
Kudos to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla for filing the charges before the Sandiganbayan that led to Romualdez’s arrest order — a step in the right direction for President Marcos.
The President earlier declared in his SoNA: “I am not the president of my family. I am not the president of my friends. I am the president of the Philippines.”
The case against his cousin gives him an opportunity to prove that those words were not merely rhetorical.
Senator Panfilo Lacson noted that, with Romualdez’s arrest, critics who accused the President of weak leadership and lack of resolve in confronting the flood control mess should now be answered by his actions.
About two weeks before the filing of the charges, two Fil-Am leaders had urged President Marcos to act decisively against Romualdez and former Representative Zaldy Co.
Philippine Global Media Group president Dan E. Niño told me that Filipinos in America want accountability applied consistently, regardless of political affiliation or family connections. Fil-Am business leader Eddie Ferrer similarly stressed that overseas Filipinos remain deeply invested in the country’s future. Their families, properties, businesses, and retirement plans remain tied to the Philippines.
Their concern is understandable. Overseas Filipinos sent home about $39.6 billion in remittances in 2025. Their hard-earned dollars sustain families, finance education, build homes, support businesses and strengthen the Philippine economy.
They therefore have every right to demand that public money be protected and used for its intended purpose.
For more than a month, floods have again submerged communities in Metro Manila, Bulacan and other parts of the country. Roads have become rivers, families have been displaced, and workers and businesses have lost income.
The theft of flood control funds makes the tragedy even more infuriating.
Lacson has warned that as much as half of the money allocated for flood control over 15 years may have been lost to corruption. He explained how deductions and kickbacks could leave only about 40 percent of project funds for actual construction.
If his assessment is accurate, the public did not lose money alone. Communities lost their protection from disasters.
Every ghost project left families exposed. Every substandard structure endangered lives and property. Every peso diverted into private pockets weakened the country’s ability to withstand increasingly extreme rainfall.
Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Those words speak powerfully to this moment — and personally to me.
For many years, I had the privilege of working closely with the late President Fidel V. Ramos as his family biographer and as an author and chronicler of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation. Through 18 books, countless interviews and many working sessions, I helped document the Ramos family and important chapters of Philippine history.
FVR became more than a subject whose life and presidency I was privileged to chronicle. He became a mentor and a second father in life.
What struck me most was his abiding love for the Philippines. Even after leaving Malacañang, he never considered his service finished. At the RPDEV office in Makati, I saw him continue bringing together leaders from government, business, and civil society in search of ways to move the country forward.
For FVR, the presidency was never a personal possession. It was a temporary stewardship of the Philippine ship of state. “One Philippines” was not merely a slogan but a continuing national project demanding unity, discipline, duty, and sacrifice.
Perhaps this is why, as a senior citizen who has spent much of his life documenting Philippine history, I feel a somber longing to see our country finally break free of selective justice.
I have witnessed too many scandals erupt with fury, too many investigations begin with thunder, and too many cases eventually disappear into silence.
That is why the Romualdez case must not be the end of the investigation.
Authorities must follow the evidence wherever it leads and identify every official, contractor, engineer, and intermediary who may have planned, approved, facilitated, and benefited from anomalous projects.
Romualdez should not be singled out if others were involved. Neither should his relationship with the President shield him from prosecution. There must be no sacred cows — but also no political scapegoats.
Justice becomes selective when it moves swiftly against political opponents but hesitates before members of the ruling circle. It is equally selective when one person is prosecuted while others who may share responsibility hide behind wealth and influence.
Filipinos abroad ask only that their sacrifices be matched by competent government and honest stewardship.
At this stage of my life, I no longer hanker for grand promises. I wish only to see accountability applied equally to officials and opposition leaders, allies and critics, friends and relatives, and ordinary citizens.
FVR often expressed his faith in the Filipino with the words, “Kaya natin ito!” (We can do this!).
I still want to believe that we can build institutions and a culture of accountability worthy of the nation he loved and served.
May I yet live to see a Philippines where justice does not ask whom you know, which family you belong to, or which political camp you serve — but only what the evidence proves.
