The fall of Sara and Martin

By yearend, two of the most powerful political personalities and dynasties in the Philippines would have fallen, from the dizzying height of a breathtaking pinnacle of power to the ravine of ignominy and disgrace – Sara Zimmerman Duterte and former speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. They will be defanged, financially and politically.

The nation’s second-highest official, Sara Duterte, will be convicted (by 16 of all 24 senators), ousted as Vice President and won’t be allowed to run for president in 2028. In fact, she won’t be allowed to hold any public office ever.

The evidence and testimonies against Sara before the impeachment court have been damning and convincing; only the most stupid or disconnected of the senators will think she is not guilty. The majority already has 13 votes. It needs only three senators more to get the magic 16 votes of conviction. The three could include Bong Go, one of the Cayetano siblings, one of the Villar siblings and Loren Legarda.

Before a local Quezon City court, VP Sara is accused of grave threats. Before the Senate impeachment court, she is accused of four crimes: 1) misusing or pocketing P612.5 million of taxpayers’ money (that’s plunder); 2) unexplained wealth to the tune of P6.77 billion despite earning only P24 million in salaries as a public official; 3) bribery; and 4) grave threats. She threatened to kill President Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and then speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. No joke, no joke.

The evidence and testimonies against Sara are indisputable and indefensible. To account for the P612.5 million she pocketed, she produced 5,000 fake receipts, including two named after a vagina. For grave threats, she has two videos of making the threats. For unexplained wealth, there is a money trail compiled by the Anti-Money Laundering Council – P6.77 billion passed through her bank accounts while earning only P24 million in years as a public official. Her own net worth increased from P7 million in 2007 to P98 million in 2025, double/triple the average annual rate of increase in wealth by an average greedy public official.

An examination of Sara’s net worth, assets and properties shows two things, according to the Articles of Impeachment: 1) the growth in her wealth is grossly disproportionate to her income and 2) vast amounts of hidden and unexplained wealth, including P2 billion transacted from 2006 to 2025 alone. Under the law, property is unlawfully acquired whenever its value is “manifestly out of proportion to his salary as a public officer.”

Once the nation’s fourth-highest official, former speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez will rot in the Payatas jail for quite some time while his case is being tried. He is accused of four crimes: plunder, to the tune of P7.4 billion; direct bribery; indirect bribery and money laundering.

The evidence and testimonies curated by Ombudsman Boying Remulla and detailed in his 113-page resolution before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court are compelling and hard to disprove.

The ombudsman attacks or proves plunder at both ends – how the billions (P55 billion to P56 billion minimum initial estimate that went to Romualdez) were extracted and spirited away from the national treasury while Romualdez was speaker from July 25, 2022 (when a monthly bribe quota of P2 billion began) to Sept. 7, 2025 (that’s a total of P78 billion in nine months) and where the monies were spent.

With the loot, Romualdez bought at least two mansions – 30 Tamarind Road, South Forbes Park, bought from Doris Magsaysay Ho for P1.396 billion in March 2023, and 14 Narra Avenue, Forbes Park, for P1.6 billion in January 2023. Mansion 30 Tamarind was designated as “bagsakan at imbakan ng pera” to facilitate the handling of funds from SOPs, collections and cash deliveries associated with government projects.

In December 2024 alone, co-accused Zaldy Co personally delivered P1 billion in cash to 30 Tamarind. Deliveries to Romualdez totaled P55 billion to P56 billion, according to the ombudsman resolution. From 2022-2025, cash deliveries to Romualdez were about 25-30 times (at three to five times a week); “each delivery amounted to P1.2 billion, more or less.”

Jose Raulito E. Paras is the controlling shareholder of money-losing Gold Pheasant Holdings Corp., the alleged owner of 30 Tamarind. Yet Paras did not file any income tax return in 2019 and 2022. In 2023, he declared a gross income of only P2.75 million; in 2024, P12.9 million.

Another Romualdez dummy company, Brightnews, became the owner of 14 Narra Mansion, using Veterans Bank managers’ checks. Relatedly, 37.44 percent of Veterans Bank was acquired by Romualdez, using RYM Business Management Corp.

In 2023, a Romualdez company, Clearspring, acquired 330.6 million shares of Digiplus Interactive Corp. worth P886 million, which was financed through a loan from U Finance Limited of Hong Kong. Part of the Clearspring money, P300 million, came from managers’ checks purchased by a money changer, Samchan, in January 2023.

Braavos, a member of a Singapore Cecil Property, bought Villa Kabila in Sotogrande, Cadiz, Spain on Jan. 30, 2023, for P471.8 million. Martin’s son Marty is a polo player who frequents Sotogrande. In October 2025, Romualdez transferred P174 million and $2.8 million to Braavos.

Martin also donated $2 million to Harvard College, using Paras’ BDO account, and another $5 million to Cornell University, through a remittance by Paras. Romualdez and Paras are fraternity brothers in Upsilon Sigma Phi. Paras is also a director of Benguet Corp., a Romualdez mining company.

Romualdez declared assets of P122.28 million in 2023, P307 million in 2024 and P1.185 billion in June 2025, including P293 million in cash.

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