A MEGA bomb was dropped on social media yesterday, just as we were preparing our dinner in the midst of the smog in Metro Manila and the unhealthy air in Metro Cebu. Former speaker of the House and longtime Leyte congressman, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, uploaded a video giving his side of the issue on the massive corruption in the flood control projects. Romualdez is the cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Before the corruption mess swept upon us like floodwaters, he was being bruited about as “presidential timber.”
But that timber is now gone, whittled down to a small and slim wooden bookmark.
Romualdez has disputed claims that he interfered in budget decisions, which he claimed were made just by two officials. They are former Senate president Francis “Chiz” Escudero and former House Appropriations Committee chairman and ex-Ako Bicol Party-list representative Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co. Note that all the three are now called “former,” as in still powerful, although no longer in top positions of pelf and power. Co, of course, has been caught crossing Germany from the Czech Republic, and his deportation back to the Philippines is in process.
Romualdez broke his silence over the 2025 budget issue, noting that he was not part of either the bicameral conference committee or the small committee that made changes to the General Appropriations Bill after it was approved by the House and the Senate.
Co, as chairman of the appropriations panel, was part of bicameral conference discussions and even the small committee. On the other hand, documents seemed to show that Escudero allegedly made P142.7 billion worth of insertions during the bicameral conference committee hearing on the 2025 national budget, before Congress ratified it.
The former speaker reiterated that implementing flood control projects falls on the “purview of the executive,” particularly the Department of Public Works and Highways. Pundits said that he is pointing his finger at former Public Works secretary Martin Bonoan, who has denied to high heavens the stink of corruption in his domain.
Some people note that the executive could also refer to his cousin, the sitting president. And that his video can be likened to an American metaphor: the fat lady sings the blues. But this remains in the realm of speculation, as of press time.
Wearing a simple white T-shirt with a collar against a blue background (to connote purity of intention and nobility of spirit), Romualdez read a statement that you could feel has been written and rewritten 100 times by his communications team. But they should also tell him that “divisive” is pronounced as “dee-VAY-sive,” with an accent on the second syllable.
Romualdez piped in: “I understand the anger of the public. The people have every right to be angry because stolen public funds are taxes derived from hard-earned money. I’m not asking the public to look away. I’m asking everyone to look where the evidence points, not where it is politically convenient or politically motivated.”
He said that he chose to stay silent because he believed in the legal system. However, he is now answering because his silence was exploited and being “politically engineered” through spun stories.
Romualdez was referring to Co’s claims in a video statement last November 2025. Co was a small-time businessman in Albay before he was voted to Congress on the strength of Bicol’s ethnic vote for his Ako Bicol Party-list. My parents are from Bicol, and my relatives said they hardly felt any of the achievements trumpeted by this party-list group in its 1,000 years in office.
Co is notorious in Bicol for allegedly owning the hyper-expensive Misibis Bay Resort worth billions of pesos, and the media exposé about his unimaginable wealth has come under public scrutiny. One of them is that he allegedly had a five-story basement built under one of his many houses — to contain the billions of pesos he had amassed. That much money, while our ordinary jeepney and tricycle drivers have to beg for coins in these days of skyrocketing gas prices.
Romualdez said, “What’s even more disturbing... is that there are emerging indications that certain sectors are attempting to weaponize individuals, including Co, to construct a narrative that serves their own interests. So, when the legal process is being used against me as a political demolition job, then I have no choice but to defend myself.”
Co stayed silent in his lair in Europe, but last Nov. 14, the former lawmaker came out with a video accusing President Marcos, former members of his Cabinet and Romualdez of being behind the budget insertions.
In the first set of videos Co released, he claimed that Marcos, through former Budget secretary Amenah Pangandaman, ordered the insertion of P100 billion for infrastructure projects. After he supposedly confirmed the directive with undersecretary Adrian Bersamin, Co said he told Romualdez about this. He also backed statements made by a Senate witness that money in luggage — tons of it — were delivered to Marcos and Romualdez.
But several people, including two well-respected university professors, have analyzed Co’s statements under a clear lens. Professor Antonio Contreras and former Finance undersecretary Cielo Magno found a flaw in Co’s claims. They said that the president himself could have done the insertions himself, if he wanted to.
There were also concerns as to whether the order indeed came from Marcos. Co never said that he spoke to Marcos directly. Maybe he did in his mind, or in front of the mirror one very early morning, when cobwebs still filled his brain. Marcos himself urged Co to come home and testify against him, claiming that he has nothing to hide.
This all looks like a spider’s web. The more Co spins stories, the more he is like the fly whose body is being covered by layer upon layer of spider webs. Romualdez, on the other hand, seems like the fly hovering near the spider’s web, whose one foot has been covered by the stick spider web. But who is the spider, who would gobble them all up, in a matter of time?
It depends on where you sit on the tree of politics.
Danton Remoto’s novels and short stories are being sold at Fully Booked, National Bookstore, Central Books website, Shopee and Lazada; Kinokuniya in Asia; and Amazon worldwide.
