A welcome, if premature, move
On Monday, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that his office was preparing plunder charges against Sen. Francis Escudero and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez in connection with the flood control scandal, with the charges to be filed next month. “[I]f you think about it, there was a conspiracy to commit plunder,” he said.
Remulla’s announcement comes amid growing perception that the probe on corruption-ridden government projects has come to naught. After all, the Independent Commission for Infrastructure wrapped up its monthslong investigation with recommendations that barely created a ripple. For want of enough signatures on its report, the Senate blue ribbon committee meanwhile softened its findings of possible charges of plunder, bribery, and graft against three sitting senators into them merely facing investigation.
And how true are reports that the freeze order on assets worth billions owned by parties involved in the scheme, including the Discaya contractor couple, has lapsed since the Court of Appeals denied the extension request by the Anti-Money Laundering Council? This means that theoretically and subject to some regulatory checks, the involved individuals can now withdraw or move these assets that could have been forfeited by the government as proceeds of a criminal enterprise.
Turning a blind eye
Then there’s that unfulfilled promise by some high officials that several prominent personalities involved in the anomalous deals would be behind bars by Christmas.
Remulla’s announcement somehow assuaged such doubts, with the Ombudsman saying that budget officials will also be implicated in the plunder case. The probe can go as far back as the term of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco from Oct. 2020 to June 2022, the official added.
Both Escudero and Romualdez were mentioned in investigations on failed flood control projects by several government bodies. Escudero was ousted as Senate president in September 2025, while Romualdez stepped down as Speaker nine days later.
In November 2025, Remulla said the two officials should be held liable for either directly facilitating or turning a blind eye to corruption-tainted flood control and other infrastructure projects in the past several years.
In a statement, Romualdez’s lawyer Ade Fajardo said that while his client respects the processes of the Ombudsman, there is no evidence linking the lawmaker to any anomalies in any ghost and substandard projects. “We remain confident that these matters will be resolved based on evidence and due process—not politics or speculation,” Fajardo said.
A sliver of hope
Escudero has yet to issue a statement, though he had earlier denied any involvement in alleged irregularities tied to flood control projects. In a widely-slammed decision in November 2025, the Commission on Elections cleared Escudero of any violation of the election code when the former Senate president received a P30-million campaign donation from Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc., and a government contractor.
While it might be premature to telegraph the Ombudsman’s moves, Remulla offered a sliver of hope that government would finally follow through its promised crackdown on tainted government infrastructure projects.
The prospect of accountability among high government officials also gives the lie to critics who describe the extensive probe on flood control projects as “just politics.” Far from being “political persecution,” as some quarters allege, Remulla’s welcome move was a master class in showing how, like Lady Justice, the administration has chosen to remain blind to blood ties, political alliances, and electoral expediency in prosecuting culpable parties. True or not, perception is 90 percent of reality.
Cruelest month
Shattering the political opposition’s claims and puncturing its credibility at this juncture when its lawyers are scrambling to stop the Vice President’s impeachment trial also bodes well for the established constitutional process meant to promote transparency and extract accountability in handling public funds.
Despite fostering a favorable impression on this administration however, a crucial question remains: why spring the announcement of filing charges almost a month before it takes place? Why preempt an action better accomplished way before publicly trumpeting it? Have we not learned from the cases of former Ako Bicol party list Rep. Zaldy Co and the case of the missing sabungeros’ suspected mastermind Charlie “Atong” Ang, who both slipped through the country’s porous borders amid all that talk about arrest warrants and court cases?
Now that Remulla’s premature announcement could have warned the two individuals of the court reckoning awaiting them, what steps is government taking to prevent them escaping to foreign shores? Can Remulla stand his ground and stick to his commitment to see the matter through?
For the Office of the Ombudsman, April may be the cruelest month—as it tests the government’s resolve to uphold accountability no matter the names involved.
