WHAT USED TO be a sober Martin Romualdez has turned confrontational after the Office of the Ombudsman prevented him from leaving the country to undergo what he described as a “long overdue” follow-up check-up in Singapore.
In a video message Romualdez took a swipe at the executive department headed by no less than his cousin — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
He also dragged former Senate President Francis Escudero and his former subordinate, resigned Ako Bicol partylist Rep. Zaldy Co as the main characters behind the so-called flood control scandal.
“I won’t go alone,” said Romualdez in a statement.
SACRIFICIAL LAMB
Since the floodgate scandal dominated headlines, Romualdez’s name has constantly been linked — an act which the former House leader described as part of a demolition job that would make him a “fall guy.”
By his own admission, Romualdez said that the 2025 budget is marred with with billions of insertions (or unprogrammed allocations) designed to give leverage to favored provinces and project contractors – a practice which he claimed resulted in multiple ghost projects and repetitive funding for uncompleted past projects with contractors allocating SOPs (kickbacks) to select legislators.
The flood control anomalies were exposed by the President during his fourth State of the Nation Address in July 2025, which came about because of the budget insertions made by the opaque small committee (called bicameral conference committee) composed of Co, Romualdez and former Senate President Chiz Escudero.
Romualdez however denied being part of the so-called small committees, even as he named both Co and Escudero as the key decision-makers in past scandal-ridden budgets, which was signed by Marcos himself.
POINTING FINGERS
The former House Speaker issued a rare rebuke of the executive on Tuesday, April 21, pointing fingers at the branch of government led by his cousin, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for the budget scandal that has rocked the Philippines since 2025, reads part of a Rappler report.
Romualdez categorically denied masterminding the supposed kickback scheme and argued that the national budget process is completed not by the House speaker alone but by the entire House, the Senate, and the executive branch.
“If corruption were to occur, in a magnitude made known to us over the past months, then it’s clear that real corruption does not happen at the level of general legislative approval alone. It happens at the level of execution of the General Appropriations Act. It happens when projects are implemented,” Romualdez said.
“That is why command responsibility is far more logically relevant in the executive branch, where there is actual supervision, operational control, and implementation on the ground, than in a collegial legislative body whose constitutional role is deliberation and appropriation,” Rappler quoted him.
NO INVOLVEMENT
Romualdez asserted he had no hand in the deliberations of the small committee, a small group of lawmakers that handled budget amendments in the House in recent history until it was abolished in 2025.
He identified Escudero and his former close ally, fugitive Zaldy Co, as “the two people [who] were instrumental in making those budget decisions.”
“I will not allow myself to be turned into the scapegoat so that others who are actually accountable can walk away clean. If this is a political play to push me out and close the story, tarnishing my name and my reputation, then I am telling everyone now: I will not go quietly, and I will not go alone. I will not be the fall guy for other people’s corruption,” Romualdez averred.
The congressmen from Leyte publicly committed to releasing the affidavit he submitted to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure and the list of all the projects in his district.
TRIGGERING FACTOR
Romualdez’s statement comes a day after the Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla asked the Sandiganbayan to issue a precautionary hold departure order against the Leyte 1st District lawmaker. If granted, a PHDO could bar a person from leaving the country.
The special panel at the Ombudsman filed a formal complaint-affidavit against Romualdez for criminal offenses of plunder, direct bribery, violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019), indirect bribery, and money laundering.
It alleged that Romualdez was the “purported mastermind” behind the kickback scheme tied to ghost flood control projects. The kickbacks supposedly reached P56 billion.
Romualdez has asked to travel to Singapore for a “long overdue follow-up” on his angioplasty surgery, and has been given a travel clearance by the House.
The trip comes days after Marcos announced the arrest in Prague of Co, who once accused Romualdez of giving orders to make budget insertions tied to anomalous flood control projects.
PORK BARREL KING
An investigative report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism also named Romualdez as a “pork barrel king” after his district received the highest share of “allocables” or public works funding in past national budgets.
Remulla previously announced that his office is preparing to file plunder charges against Romualdez and Escudero over their alleged roles in the flood control corruption scandal, Rappler added.
The former Speaker is scheduled to fly to Singapore for medical procedure, but Ombudsman Remulla asked the Sandiganbayan to issue a PHDO, which the anti graft court has yet to act on.
The only legal basis to bar Romualdez from traveling abroad would be a PHDO or a hold departure order, but no court has issued either.
HOUSE CLEARANCE
House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil granted Romualdez’s request for a travel clearance on Monday, April 20, upon his commitment that he will return home after his “long overdue follow-up” on his angioplasty surgery.
Romualdez’ travel request is from April 20 to May 4, although his staff said on Tuesday, April 21, that the Leyte 1st District lawmaker is still in the Philippines. His office released documentary proof of travel clearance after Ombudsman Boying Remulla said on Tuesday that the Ombudsman barred Romualdez from leaving the country.
Romualdez’s legal counsel, however, insisted that his client cannot be prevented from leaving the country, because the congressman is only facing an immigration lookout bulletin order.
“We urge caution against drawing conclusions from incomplete or unofficial information. Representative Romualdez has consistently respected legal processes and will continue to do so,” Romualdez’s lawyer Ade Fajardo said in a statement.
IMMINENT PLUNDER
Remulla earlier announced that his office is preparing to file plunder charges against Romualdez and the former Senate President Escudero over their alleged roles in the flood control corruption scandal.
“The problem there is, it seems too coincidental that Zaldy Co was caught in Europe and then suddenly (Romualdez) plans to leave. Later on, we might have nothing left to hold on to in this country. Everyone we want to hold accountable might just end up beyond our jurisdiction,” Remulla said on Tuesday.