Remulla: Romualdez behind bagmen’s tale
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla on Friday belittled the reported recantation of four of 18 alleged bagmen of former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, saying it won’t affect the plunder charges against former Speaker Martin Romualdez. He accused the Leyte congressman of being responsible for the men’s actions.
The four men, who claimed they were Co’s former bodyguards, have signed affidavits withdrawing their allegations in sworn statements that they delivered cash packed in suitcases to Romualdez, Co and President Marcos, according to a GMA News report on Thursday.
Romualdez strongly rejected Remulla’s accusation, saying that it was “absolutely not true.”
“This shows how extremely prejudiced he is against me,” Romualdez said in a statement. “The recantations prove what I had been saying all along that the accusations against me are false and trumped-up.”
Ombudsman investigators said Romualdez and Co were allegedly engaged in “concerted and coordinated acts” in “unlawfully amassing, accumulating, and acquiring ill-gotten wealth” amounting to approximately P56 billion from 2022 to 2025.
They cited the testimonies of three of the four bagmen.
Other evidence available
Remulla was dismissive of the recantation, saying it “doesn’t weaken or strengthen” the Ombudsman’s complaint against Romualdez. He noted that there were other evidence against the former Speaker.
“The affidavits are there for us to use, and we will use them. If they want to recant it, so be it, but it will be in the court already,” Remulla said at a press conference.
He pointed out that recantations were “frowned upon by the courts.”
Remulla said their recantation “just points out to the fact that there are people working to obstruct the ends of justice.”
“You will really see how desperate that camp is to take away the witnesses against them because we have built a solid case already,” he said.
When asked whose camp he was referring to, Remulla said: “The camp of former Speaker Romualdez—his lawyers, his strategists, his advisors.”
Pressed to repeat his allegations against Romualdez, Remulla said: “Of course! Of course! Who else? Who else would benefit if they recant?”
Levito Baligod, a lawyer for the so-called “maleta boys,” said that “for a long time, there were attempts to bribe them.” He wasn’t certain, however, whether the four who recanted had been paid off.
“One of them texted me, saying, ‘Sorry, sir because of the temptation I am experiencing,’” Baligod said.
In February, he submitted before the Office of the Ombudsman a joint affidavit of all the 18 bodyguards.
Of the 18, the Ombudsman only obtained the separate affidavits from eight. The three of the four who retracted their allegations were among the eight. The fourth did not submit a separate affidavit.
In the GMA News interview, the four men said they signed the joint affidavit because of an alleged promise of financial assistance. Baligod denied this.
He said he understood their situation.
“But they should not say that I’m making money off of them, or that we wanted to carry out a scam so they made the [joint] affidavit, or that they were forced or intimidated, or that I promised them a lot of money,” Baligod added.
When asked if Baligod remained trustworthy despite the recent development, Remulla said: “Was he ever?”
More questions
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the recantation only raised more questions and caused confusion in the minds of the public.
“First question that needs to be answered is—are these four part or outside of the eight reported earlier to have submitted their sworn statements to the Ombudsman which triggered the initiation of the preliminary investigation against former Speaker Martin Romualdez, et. al.?” Lacson said in a statement.
“With the many flip-flopping statements they made in various fora and venues, we no longer know who among them is telling the truth, or which parts of their claims are true,” he said.
But what is clear is that someone is behind all of these confusion—and that person must also be held accountable, Lacson said.
National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag said that Baligod could face charges of obstruction of justice and giving false testimony.
He said that persons he had implicated in the plunder case could also run after him following the recantations.
Matibag said he was “not surprised” about the retractions of the four maleta boys, noting that the NBI’s findings also revealed inconsistent statements to the investigators.
The NBI chief noted that the four men covered their faces when they were interviewed. He asked whether they were the same men who made bold allegations against Romualdez and other officials.
When they made their accusations, they wore matching shirts and their faces were exposed. “It should be the same here,” Matibag said.
Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who was accused by Co’s alleged bagmen of receiving $2 million to bribe investigators from the International Criminal Court, said on Friday that he would drop criminal complaints against the four men, who also claimed to be former Marines.
“As a former soldier, I sympathize with what they are going through—being exploited by individuals with sinister political agenda due to their lack of livelihood. I hope they have learned a hard lesson from these events,” he said. —WITH REPORTS FROM GABRIEL PABICO LALU, MARY JOY SALCEDO AND HOLLY BACAY
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