Plunder

Atty. Jose Roy III argues the flood-control kickback scheme ran "on a per-project basis," too scattered for one mastermind — an answer to who approved the budget, not to what happened once the money moved.

Hours after the former House Speaker's arraignment by videoconference, the Sandiganbayan opened a second front — a preventive suspension case that could cost him his Leyte congressional seat while his bail petition is still being prepared.

Sandiganbayan-vetted medical findings call the ₱7.44-billion plunder defendant "clinically stable" for detention, more than a week after his arrest in the flood-control kickback scandal.

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.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla says Sen. Loren Legarda used her Senate finance committee post to help her son Leandro Leviste secure exclusive solar energy franchises that produced "ghost electricity," leaving more than ₱10.44 billion in unpaid government obligations; Legarda calls the case "utterly false and baseless."

Counsel for former House Speaker Martin Romualdez pushed back after Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano raised the possibility he could evade prosecution in the flood-control plunder case, arguing he has never left the country and has cooperated with the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.

The Third Division's order came a day after Marcoleta withdrew his motion to quash and pleaded not guilty to plunder and anti-gift law charges over an alleged undeclared ₱75-million campaign donation — a plea that under the Anti-Plunder Act can trigger preventive suspension from the Senate.

Two separate complaints — for plunder and money laundering — were filed against Martin Romualdez and fugitive contractor Zaldy Co on July 20, backed by sworn statements from eight of Co's former security personnel describing alleged cash deliveries.

Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano on June 1 categorically denied that the Office of the Ombudsman offered to drop cases against Senator Jinggoy Estrada in exchange for his political allegiance — calling any such arrangement a form of corruption in itself — after Estrada publicly alleged he had been repeatedly offered exactly that deal before his surrender.

Eleven minority senators walked out of the plenary on May 26, breaking quorum and forcing adjournment, after the majority moved to amend chamber rules to allow remote participation — a change critics said was timed to protect Senator Rodante Marcoleta and others facing imminent plunder charges from having to appear in person.