Chiz sees ‘diversions’ to absolve Romualdez

MANILA, Philippines —  Allies of former House speaker Martin Romualdez were engaged in “diversionary” tactics apparently to burnish his image and absolve him of any responsibility for anomalies in flood control projects, Sen. Francis Escudero said yesterday.

Escudero’s remarks came after Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno suggested in several media interviews that Romualdez had no direct hand in the budget insertions and irregularities in flood control allocations from 2022 to 2024.

“What they’re doing is funny. They’re quick to absolve Speaker Romualdez, implicate Rep. Zaldy Co., divert the issue and do some finger-pointing,” Escudero said in Filipino.

In an interview with ANC, Puno said Escudero shares the blame with Co.

Congressmen and public works officials were portrayed as pawns of Romualdez and Co in a sworn statement submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee by top contractor couple Curlee and Sara Discaya.

Several other congressmen were named by the Discaya couple, who detailed years of kickbacks and political pressure to secure public works contracts.

Escudero emphasized that the real issue is the proliferation of “ghost projects,” substandard works and alleged kickbacks which, he said, were documented mostly in the budget program for 2022, 2023 and 2024 and for preceding years as attested to by the Commission on Audit (COA), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and by whistleblowers.

President Marcos earlier disclosed that P545 billion was allocated for flood control from July 2022 to May 2025, with P100 billion – nearly 20 percent – awarded to just 15 contractors.

Escudero urged the public to be wary of political narratives that he said only serve to cloud the controversy.

“Let’s not be swayed by this diversion,” Escudero said. He noted that the 2025 budget is only beginning to be implemented, with some projects even placed on hold on orders of the President. He also cited Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon’s commitment to properly implement projects.

Puno, in his television interview, said the insertions were made by Escudero and Co during a meeting of the “small committee” of the bicameral conference committee. Romualdez and Poe did not attend the meeting.

“No, the Speaker did not attend the meeting. Senator Grace Poe was not allowed to attend most of those meetings. It ended up Zaldy Co and Senate president Francis Escudero were the ones actually penciled in whatever needed to be penciled in it,” Puno said.

“Yes, because the version that they sent back to the House already included the budget insertions,” he added when asked if Escudero and Co were to blame for the budget insertions.

Puno said the original House version of the 2025 national budget did not have insertions.

“You know, here is the process of the budget, as I explained earlier, the House version did not have insertions, it went to the Senate, the Senate and Congress had a bicameral committee, the bicameral committee was composed of so many committees. Then they decided to make it a small committee, the small committee was four people: Senate president Escudero, Speaker Romualdez, senator Grace Poe and congressman Zaldy Co,” Puno said.

“There are 20,000 DPWH projects, 20,000 so, it takes a lot of painstaking readings. It was the two who actually finalized those things and that is what I am saying, it did not come to light until just recently, you know, since the situation everybody knew was the case as early as January,” Puno said.

“But then again, you signed it, you approved it, 20,000 projects (of DPWH). I mean, I’ve seen the budget, I could not find, for the life of me, my own projects in my district in the general appropriations bill. That is how complicated it is,” Puno said. –Jose Rodel Clapano