The lawyer who once served on the Commission on Elections, Rowena Guanzon, has surfaced as a figure in the latest twist of the flood-control corruption saga, after retired Marine Orly Guteza pointed to her name while walking back his earlier accusations against former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
In a sworn statement dated August 13, 2026 and made public on August 19, Guteza retracted the account he had delivered before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee nearly a year earlier, on September 25, 2025. That original testimony described suitcases of cash — which he referred to as “basura” — being ferried to properties tied to Romualdez and resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co. Guteza now says he had no direct knowledge of any such deliveries.
According to the new affidavit, which was first reported by GMA News, Guteza claimed that after his Senate appearance, someone linked to the office of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta offered to connect him with a contact identified only as “Atty. Guanzon.” Guteza said the introduction was meant to help rework his affidavit ahead of a planned case filing. He stated that he never reached out to the number, saying he wanted to avoid being used a second time.
Guteza, who had worked as a security aide to Co, laid the blame for the fabricated narrative on Marcoleta and former Quezon City congressman Mike Defensor. He alleged the two had recruited him to level accusations at Romualdez in exchange for money and educational support for his children.
As of this writing, Guanzon has not issued any public statement addressing her mention in the document. Marcoleta and Defensor, both now detained over a separate plunder case pending before the Sandiganbayan, had not responded to media requests for comment when the recantation broke.
The reversal is one of several to hit the Ombudsman’s case build-up. The Office of the Ombudsman has said the investigation into Romualdez and Co does not rest on any single witness, noting that more than two dozen other individuals — described as people still in government service — can speak to the transactions under scrutiny. Recantations, the agency said, are a familiar pressure tactic in high-profile prosecutions.
Doubts had already trailed Guteza’s original affidavit before he disappeared from public view. In October 2025, a Manila court found that the notary signature on the document was forged and referred the matter to the Department of Justice. Both Romualdez and Co have consistently rejected any link to the flood-control anomalies.
