MANILA — Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla on Wednesday accused the House Committee on Appropriations of refusing to cooperate with an ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities and unauthorized insertions in the national budget during the tenure of former Speaker and Leyte representative Martin Romualdez, warning that the case could become the “biggest” corruption probe in Philippine history.
Remulla said the Ombudsman has been unable to secure subpoenaed documents and records from the House small committee proceedings covering the proposed 2024 and 2025 national budgets, hampering efforts to determine whether off-the-record budget insertions were made before the final spending measure was approved.
“We have a problem with the House again, and this time it is the refusal to cooperate of the Committee Secretariat of the [House] Committee on Appropriations because we are trying to get to the bottom of the [budget] insertions,” Remulla said during a press conference.
“They are not obeying our subpoena. It has become a little difficult, to say the least, but we intend to do something about it,” he added.
The House small committee is responsible for consolidating amendments to the national budget after the spending bill has been approved on third and final reading by the chamber.
According to Remulla, investigators are focusing on possible amendments that allegedly appeared in the final version of the General Appropriations Act despite not being discussed during plenary deliberations.
“There’s a period of amendments in the [House and Senate] rules. What you’re looking for here are the amendments that are not on the record—the ones inserted in the final version of the budget, not included in plenary deliberations but suddenly there,” he said.
“Biglang nag-milagro [na kasama na sa budget]. This is what happens in the small committee. They’re trying to stop us from getting the information,” he added.
Remulla said the Ombudsman is investigating what he described as a possible “conspiracy to defraud the treasury” through the national budget process.
“The conspiracy to defraud [the treasury] comes in different phases and different parts of the narration. The hardliners who do not want us to get to the bottom of things… many of them are in the House right now,” he said.
Despite the allegations, Remulla clarified that the case against Romualdez and other individuals remains under investigation and that authorities are still building the legal theory behind the alleged conspiracy.
“The grandest case of them all, the biggest case, is the conspiracy to defraud the treasury. That’s really it, committed through the national budget. So we’re being very careful about every premise that we make,” he said.
Remulla added that investigators are still determining the specific legal provisions and possible charges that may eventually be filed.
“We’re just saying that’s the big case that needs to be finished because this is the first time in the history of the Philippines that we will have this kind of case,” Remulla added./PN
