A total of P7.4 billion in alleged bribes, questionable budget insertions, and project allocations sits at the center of the plunder case that has now placed former House Speaker Martin Romualdez in government custody, according to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla confirmed Monday evening that Romualdez holds the status of a person deprived of liberty (PDL) after authorities served an arrest warrant on him. The warrant was delivered while the former speaker was admitted at Cardinal Santos Medical Center, with his lawyers, doctors, and one of his children present. “After we read him his rights, he is now considered a person deprived of liberty,” the interior secretary said.
Romualdez’s health became a focal point of the evening. Medical staff reported he was experiencing a cardiovascular episode, and the interior chief relayed their assessment directly: “According to the doctors, he is suffering from a cardiovascular event,” adding, “Unstable ang kanyang blood pressure and [he is] having an anxiety attack.” Physicians attached to the Philippine National Police were said to be consulting with the former speaker’s own doctors about his condition. Armed personnel were posted directly outside his room, with additional police stationed around the hospital grounds.
The custody followed a same-day sequence of legal actions. The Sandiganbayan Third Division issued the warrant only hours after prosecutors filed the plunder charge tied to an alleged kickback scheme involving flood control projects. Under Philippine law, plunder covers large-scale corruption, carries a penalty of life imprisonment, and cannot be posted for bail.
The warrant was not limited to Romualdez. The court also ordered the arrest of former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, a private individual, and the head of Samchan Foreign Exchange Corp., alongside a hold departure order.
Ahead of the warrant’s service, Romualdez’s legal team submitted a manifestation of hospital confinement together with an urgent motion ad cautelam. The filing asked the Sandiganbayan to permit service of any warrant at Cardinal Santos and to keep him in continuous lawful custody at the facility “for so long as inpatient confinement remains medically necessary, as certified by his attention physician, until he is medically cleared for transfer, and subject to further order of the Court”.
The motion laid out an extensive medical picture. It stated that “Romualdez has a documented cardiac history and has remained under continuing medical care for that condition… He is currently confined due to the following: Hypertensive Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, Unstable Angina, Coronary Artery Disease, S/P PCI (post percutaneous coronary intervention), Cerebrovascular Ischemic Disease, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, and Primary Hypothyroidism.” It further noted that “Accused previously underwent Angioplasty Surgery on 05 October 2024 due to Coronary Artery Disease, and has since required continuing cardiac monitoring and treatment.”
Supporting the request was a medical certificate that, per the filing, details “the treatment, monitoring, tests, and procedures required, the medical necessity of continued inpatient care, and the specific risks attendant to any interruption or transfer, as determined by the attending physician”. The document argued the certificate “explains why the required care cannot, at this time, be safely delivered at a detention facility hospital, much less a detention facility, and identifies the clinical milestones or conditions upon which accused may be medically cleared for transfer”.
His camp was careful to frame the request narrowly. The motion said Romualdez “seeks no exemption from arrest, custody, booking, security restrictions, court appearances, or eventual transfer to the detention facility designated by the court”, resting the appeal “exclusively on documented medical necessity” that “may be independently verified by a court-designated or government physician” and stays “subject to continuous custody and judicial supervision”.
The interior secretary, for his part, signaled that the government would not treat the hospital stay as open-ended, pledging daily monitoring to gauge when the former speaker could be brought before the court. “We assure you, he cannot hide behind his wealth,” he said. “Kahit gaano kayaman siya, hindi niya kayang bayaran ang batas para payagan [na] dito sa magandang lugar matutulog. Dadalhin namin siya sa Payatas sa tamang panahon, kung sabihin ng doktor na kaya na.” He described the arrangement as temporary: “Hindi ito permanent situation. Ang kuwarto niya sa Payatas ay naghihintay na… Patas ang laban dito.”
The case landed before the Third Division through raffle, under the chairmanship of Associate Justice Karl Miranda — the same division handling the plunder case against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta and the malversation case against former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. It also arrives more than a year after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a cousin of the former speaker, spotlighted allegedly nonexistent “ghost” infrastructure projects in his State of the Nation Address, work believed to have drained billions from public funds.
Romualdez, who has consistently rejected any wrongdoing, will answer the charges through the legal process, his lawyer Ade Fajardo said. “We recognize the public interest surrounding this case. But ultimately, criminal liability must be determined by the evidence presented in court, under the rules and safeguards of our justice system,” Fajardo stated. He stressed that his client wants no favored handling: “Representative Romualdez asks for no special treatment. He asks only for the same due process and fair hearing guaranteed to every Filipino. Katotohanan, ebidensya, at patas na proseso ang dapat manaig.”
