Romualdez got ‘reprimanded’ by Marcos for budget shifts — Tiangco

Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez was allegedly scolded by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for shifting funding for priority projects that were included in the executive’s proposal for 2025.

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco made the revelation during his testimony at the Sandiganbayan Third Division as he took the witness in the ongoing bail hearing of Romualdez for the case of plunder.

Tiangco said that he along with the former House speaker, attended a meeting with Marcos on 24 November 2024, held at the latter’s private office after a family dinner.

There, the President was said to have “reprimanded” his cousin for taking funding from the flagship projects of the government, accusing Romualdez and former House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Zaldy Co for collaborating.

Tiangco admitted that he felt “embarrassed” for the lawmaker as Marcos supposedly insisted that the government was falling because of Romualdez and Co.

“I remember him saying to Romualdez, ‘How many houses in Forbes Park do you want? How many airplanes do you need? How many Ferraris do you want? How much caviar can you eat?’” he stated.

Rather than directly addressing the concerns, Tiangco said that Romualdez had responded by asserting that the projects that Marcos wanted funding for would be restored during the bicameral conference committee on the budget.

Tiangco, however, said that he was uncertain whether the budget was in fact returned after the bicam as he earlier noted that he did not participate in the proceedings.

In a separate meeting in 2025, the lawmaker said that Marcos had also relayed orders for his son, Ilocos Norte 1st District Sandro Marcos for Co to be removed from his role as chairperson of the appropriations committee.

During a plenary session on 13 January 2025, Sandro moved to declare Co’s position as vacant, a motion that received no objections from lawmakers, particularly as the same came during the issues related to the budget.

Co charged fees in exchange of projects

Focusing on Co, Tiangco likewise testified that the former Ako Bicol representative had asked for a 20 percent commission through what he described as a “taripa” system to include the requested projects of congressmen into the budget.

Co was supposedly able to insert projects at the House and in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the executive branch.

Tiangco explained that the reason why projects were sold in the NEP was because of the larger fiscal space that it provided as compared to the House General Appropriations Bill and the bicam amendments.

For the latter changes, the lawmaker said that the budget for foreign-assisted and flagship projects of the government were shifted to unprogrammed appropriations, effectively making space in the programmed appropriations of the budget.

He stated that he believed that Romualdez was aware of the scheme as he recalled a previous meeting they had on 2 December 2024.

There the former House Speaker reportedly told him that “You should have just came directly to me” when discussing the projects he wanted to add for Navotas.

It was from that response that he came to know that Romualdez knew about Co’s “taripa” system.

Unlike Co, however, Tiangco clarified that the Leyte lawmaker did not ask for any commission.