Senators Ping Lacson and Rodante Marcoleta figured in a verbal spat anew on Monday after the latter insisted on summoning former House speaker Martin Romualdez to the next flood control probe in the upper chamber despite the so-called inter-parliamentary courtesy.
Lacson took strong offense at Marcoleta’s remarks that he should refrain from imposing any unnecessary conditions to call Romualdez to the next Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s investigation into the flood control anomalies.
This follows the ex-House leader’s recent controversial pronouncement, saying he won’t let himself be a “scapegoat” or a “fall guy for other people’s corruption,” which Marcoleta believed was already an indication that he is willing to implicate all the personalities involved in the alleged kickback scheme.
“This anomaly cannot be done by only one person. That means that he really knows something [and] should be summoned now. If you sum it up, the Blue Ribbon’s role is to analyze it, and it’s very clear from the public statement of former Speaker Martin Romualdez that he's ready to talk. So call him now. I just don't understand what the chairman of the BRC wants to do,” Marcoleta said in a radio interview.
Lashing back at Marcoleta, Lacson argued that members of Congress are accorded inter-parliamentary courtesy, in which they cannot compel a lawmaker to attend a hearing in the other chamber unless it’s done of their own volition.
“That’s why, the Senate always courses all invitations to congressmen to appear and testify before our committee hearings through the Speaker of the House, which the BRC did at least twice already...That’s why it’s called time-honored tradition. Hasn’t it still gotten into his head?” Lacson told reporters in a message.
An inter-parliamentary courtesy has been a longstanding practice in Congress, where members of the House and the Senate accord each other respect and do not meddle in each other's affairs. Though it remains unclear whether Romualdez’s camp invoked this tradition to justify his no-show in the previous hearings.
The powerful committee invited Romualdez in November last year and January to testify on the alleged budget anomalies tied to the kickback scheme in the flood control projects. The invitations were coursed through the Office of Speaker Bojie Dy, but to no avail, according to Lacson.
Despite this, Lacson has remained open to inviting Romualdez to the subsequent BRC’s investigation.
Lacson suspended the flood control probe pending the majority’s approval of the BRC’s partial report, which recommends that Senators Chiz Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, and Joel Villanueva be subject to further investigation following allegations that they received millions of kickbacks from flood control projects.
However, the report still lacks three signatures from the 17-member committee to advance to the plenary for deliberations and adoption, as some senators, particularly from the minority, criticized it as biased for excluding lawmakers from the House of Representatives implicated in the corruption scheme.
As of Monday, Marcoleta remained adamant about not signing the report, raising concerns that Lacson may prematurely terminate the investigation once the report mustered enough backing.
“Because, as they say, we need to [ensure that] no stones [are] unturned, and identify them all. Once we have identified everything and the report turns out well, I will sign it,” he stressed.
Last week, Romualdez broke his silence by releasing an 11-minute-long video statement, denying involvement in the supposed insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act, which was also tied to the kickback scheme in the flood control projects.
Romualdez asserted that, while he was the Speaker when the previous Congress passed the 2025 budget, he was neither part of the bicameral conference committee nor the so-called “small committee.”
Instead, he explicitly tagged Escudero and ex-lawmaker Elizaldy Co as “instrumental” in making budget decisions, as they were part of the small committee allegedly responsible for last-minute revisions to the 2025 General Appropriations Bill after it was approved by the House and the Senate.
Opposition Senators Imee Marcos and Marcoleta earlier accused Lacson of deliberately ignoring “critical leads,” pointing to the culpability of high-ranking officials, including Romualdez, in the flood control scandal.
Romualdez has repeatedly denied corruption allegations and has insisted that his cooperation with the authorities demonstrates his innocence.
Lacson has long denied shielding Romualdez, asserting that while there is no concrete proof linking him to the scandal, he is not yet off the hook and can be summoned in the next hearings.