Sen. Rodante Marcoleta maintained that the plunder complaint being readied against him was intended to prevent him from participating in the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte and from continuing his anti-corruption efforts.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Marcoleta said the case that the Office of the Ombudsman is preparing to file before the Sandiganbayan was part of a long-standing plan against him. He also pointed to an earlier remark by Sen. Panfilo Lacson about the possibility that nine senators could end up in jail.
Lacson rejected that assertion and accused Marcoleta of misrepresenting his previous statement.
“It’s gaslighting time once more,”
the senator wrote on X.
He explained that his earlier reference to nine senators being potentially incarcerated was raised only as a hypothetical example while discussing how to determine the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds vote of all senators, whether they are actively participating in the impeachment trial or not.
“The mention of nine senators being possibly incarcerated was a hypothetical statement in the context of determining the base number to compute the constitutional requirement of 2/3 vote of all senators actively participating or not in the impeachment trial,”
Lacson said.
The Office of the Ombudsman, through Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, confirmed that the complaint against Marcoleta is already “for resolution” and that authorities were “about to file it already.” The case involves P75 million in gifts or donations that Marcoleta allegedly received from three individuals in January 2025 while he was serving as a congressman.
The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) also questioned the planned filing of charges. Speaking in Filipino during a statement aired on NET25, INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala asked why Marcoleta should face prosecution and imprisonment when, according to him, the senator was the one “responsible for exposing the victims of the biggest robbery in the Philippines.”
“How did the acceptance of campaign contribution become plunder?” he added.
