Raps filed versus Romualdez, other House leaders over 2025 budget

National

GRAFT and criminal charges were filed against House Speaker Martin Romualdez and three other congressmen for allegedly falsifying documents and illegally inserting billions of pesos worth of projects in the 2025 national budget.

Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez led the filing of the complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday, February 10.

Alvarez was accompanied by known Duterte family allies, such as senatorial aspirants Jimmy Bondoc and Raul Lambino, lawyers Ferdinand Topacio and Virgilio Garcia, as well as Citizens Crime Watch President Diego Magpantay.

Aside from Romualdez, also charged were House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, former House Appropriations Committee Chair Zaldy Co, and Acting House Appropriations Chair Stella Quimbo.

The complaints also contained unnamed respondents who were allegedly involved in carrying out the insertions which amounted to P241 billion into the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Each of the accused legislators is facing 12 counts of falsification of legislative documents and graft, a report from The Philippine Star stated.

The complainants argued that the insertions, without presentation, deliberation, or member voting, bypassed established congressional procedures.

The filing of the complaints came after Rep. Isidro Ungab and former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez filed a petition before the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the 2025 GAA.

Ungab and Rodriguez pointed to blank items within the bicameral conference report concerning budget allocations for various agencies.(Rey Martin Rio, USJ-R Comm Intern)