Romualdez: How can I be mastermind if Congress doesn’t build projects?

MANILA, Philippines — Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the former House speaker, has broken his silence over the 2025 budget mess and the infrastructure corruption issue, asking how he would become the mastermind of the supposed scheme when crafting the annual budget and implementation of projects does not rest on Congress alone.

In a video statement on Tuesday, Romualdez said that he wanted to stay silent “out of respect for the legal process” and to refrain from adding “noise to an already deeply politicized and divisive issue.”

He said, however, that he would now speak out because his silence had been misconstrued and “weaponized to build a narrative that is false, twisted, and unfair.”

“How can I be the mastermind?  I was the former speaker of the House of Representatives. But the House of Representatives is only part of one branch of government: the legislature. The national budget is not conceived, executed, implemented, bid out, supervised, and completed by one congressman or even by Congress alone. And certainly not by the speaker of the House,” he added.

“Congress does not build flood control projects. Congress does not conduct procurement. Congress does not inspect whether a project was actually completed. Congress does not certify whether the work done was substandard or not,” he added.

According to Romualdez, the budget preparation does not begin in the House, but in the executive branch, as it is the one that crafts and submits the National Expenditures Program (NEP) to Congress.

The NEP eventually becomes the basis of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) crafted by the House committee on appropriations, and later deliberated by lawmakers.

“I want to make this simple and clear. The national budget does not depend on just one person. The budget does not begin in the House. It begins in the Executive. The agencies prepare their proposals, the Executive consolidates them into the National Expenditure Program, and that program is then submitted to Congress,” Romualdez pointed out.

“From there, the House deliberates. But the House is not one person, and it is certainly not the speaker alone. It is a collegial body made up of hundreds of members, multiple committees, vice chairs, and institutional processes. In fact, there are around 85 committees, each with its own jurisdiction, leadership, and members.  No speaker can personally control every committee, much less direct the actions of other branches or government agencies,” he added.

Romualdez asked why issues were not raised when there were several opportunities to do so, noting that his staunch critic, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, was himself a vice chairperson of the committee on appropriations when he was still speaker.

Romualdez said that the GAB will eventually reach the Senate, which will have a separate set of deliberations.

“Rep. Toby Tiangco, who has been very vocal and upfront about this issue over the past months, was himself a vice chair of the Appropriations Committee in the previous Congress. So I have to ask: if there were real concerns about irregularities in the budget process, why were these not formally raised during deliberations, or even during the plenary?” Romualdez asked.

“The budget deliberation does not stop in the House. The Senate also conducts its own deliberations, reviews its own version, and plays its own role in shaping the final budget. It is not a bystander. It is an active constitutional participant in the process. After that, the House and the Senate reconcile their versions in the bicameral conference committee. Only then is the final bill transmitted to the president for approval or veto,” he said.

This means that the national budget, Romualdez said, is not the act of one person or one chamber, but the “product of a constitutional chain involving the Executive, the House, and the Senate.”

Romualdez noted that accountability must apply to everyone and not selectively.

“If corruption were to occur, in a magnitude made known to us over the past months, then it’s clear that real corruption does not happen at the level of general legislative approval alone. It happens at the level of execution of the General Appropriations Act. It happens when projects are implemented. It happens where projects are actually implemented, where procurement is undertaken, where monetary disbursements are actually made, and it happens when substandard projects are passed off as legitimate,” he said.

“That is why command responsibility is far more logically relevant in the Executive branch, where there is actual supervision, operational control, and implementation on the ground, than in a collegial legislative body whose constitutional role is deliberation and appropriation,” he added.

Romualdez’s statement came out amid Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla’s statements earlier about the former speaker not being allowed to fly to Singapore for medical reasons since they had endorsed a complaint to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) — as part of a move to issue an asset freeze order against the former House leader.

The move is still related to Romualdez’s alleged involvement in the 2025 budget mess and the infrastructure corruption scandal.

But Romualdez’s lawyer, Ade Fajardo, said the former speaker is not barred from leaving the country as only an immigration lookout bulletin order has been issued against him.

READ: Romualdez’ lawyer says ex-Speaker not barred from leaving PH

According to Fajardo, Romualdez is not prohibited from traveling as he simply has to coordinate with the proper authorities.

On Tuesday, Romualdez’s office provided reporters a copy of his letter-request addressed to Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy II, wherein he asked for a travel clearance to Singapore from April 20 to May 4, for a “long overdue follow-up on my angioplasty surgery.”

READ: House OKs Romualdez’s Singapore trip for angioplasty follow-up check

Similarly, Romualdez’s office showed copies of the travel clearance issued by House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil, through the authority of Speaker Dy.

Previously, Remulla said that they are preparing plunder charges against Romualdez and former Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, due to their alleged involvement in infrastructure corruption issues, particularly the flood control scandal.

Romualdez has not been connected to any of the top companies doing the flood control projects, but he was one of the lawmakers named by Discaya and his wife, Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya, who allegedly received kickbacks from the contracts awarded to them.

The former speaker and his allies, however, have maintained that there is no strong evidence that would link him to the flood control mess as of now, agreeing with different views that the Senate blue ribbon committee cannot act since there is no evidence or firm proof linking Romualdez to the flood-control controversy.

READ: 2 House reps back Lacson: No evidence linking Romualdez to flood-control mess

Several cases have already been filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against several individuals involved in the flood control scam.  

Scrutiny of the flood control issue started after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his fourth State of the Nation Address, condemned government officials and contractors accused of receiving kickbacks from flood control projects.

Eventually, Marcos released a list of contractors, including a report that shows the top 15 contractors who secured more than 2,000 of the 10,000 flood control contracts. /gsg /atm