63 articles
Anti-graft chief Jesus Crispin Remulla says his office has filed 31 cases in the Sandiganbayan and four in regional trial courts, hired dozens of new lawyers, and is seeking a ₱7.23-billion 2027 budget to keep pace with the flood-control graft caseload.
The Senate finance committee endorsed a 7.1% budget increase for the interior department to plenary, even as senators raised questions about equipment shortfalls, an additional ₱200-million request for confidential funds, and a recruitment corruption scheme within the Bureau of Fire Protection.
Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, President Marcos' first cousin, remains hospitalized under BJMP custody as the Sandiganbayan weighs his bid to avoid transfer to a Quezon City jail while he faces a ₱7.44-billion plunder case over alleged flood-control kickbacks.
A sworn affidavit from an alleged middleman names two Bureau of Customs personnel as having received payment for 225 boxes of allegedly smuggled cigarettes, days after HPG and BOC personnel clashed during a warehouse raid in Santa Maria, Bulacan.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla says courts have been "too kind" in granting bail to officials convicted of graft while their appeals are pending, and his office will check whether Sandiganbayan convicts are actually behind bars.
Malacañang says President Marcos never authorized the ₱24-billion allocation ex-DPWH chief Manuel Bonoan described to the Sandiganbayan, even as Senate finance committee chairman JV Ejercito acknowledged senators seek project funding through informal channels and pledged more open budget negotiations in 2027.
Manuel Bonoan told the Sandiganbayan every senator received at least ₱500 million — and committee chairs up to ₱1 billion — from a DPWH-administered fund that channeled ₱21 billion in FY 2025 alone, an allegation three successive Senate presidents have each denied knowledge of.
Sen. Loren Legarda has filed a third or fourth medical leave extension since Aug. 3 and has been absent from the impeachment trial and Senate sessions while abroad, prompting the Ombudsman to call the pattern "quite suspicious" as it investigates her and her son over an alleged P10-billion ghost solar project scheme.
Vigor Mendoza II and Teofilo Guadiz III, both former Land Transportation Office chiefs, face preventive suspension after auditors found their decisions to keep the Stradcom-operated IT system running alongside its government-built replacement cost motorists more than P13 billion since 2019.
A Pasig court issued warrants against Guo and 11 co-accused on three counts of graft tied to the trafficking-linked Baofu Compound offshore gaming hub in Bamban, Tarlac — adding to the life sentence for human trafficking and a ₱1.008-billion tax evasion case she already faces.
