Senate Deputy Minority Leader Rodante Marcoleta on Monday slammed former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, accusing the Leyte representative of unfairly linking Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero to the massive flood control anomaly to escape personal accountability over national budget irregularities.
During his privilege speech, Marcoleta criticized Romualdez’s recent attempts to redirect the public focus toward the former Senate leader, following Romualdez’s own public denial of any involvement in the infrastructure controversy.
“The (former) Speaker’s defense further falls apart the moment he passes the buck to the former Senate President Chiz Escudero,” Marcoleta stated.
Marcoleta, who shares membership with Escudero in the nine-member Senate minority faction, emphasized the imbalance in budget oversight timelines between the two former leaders.
He noted that Escudero only managed the fund deliberations for the 2025 cycle, whereas Romualdez supervised three full national budget iterations from 2022 to 2025.
Both former leaders were stripped of their leadership posts in September 2025 after becoming embroiled in allegations of systemic corruption concerning flood control infrastructure.
Furthermore, the Senate deputy minority leader challenged Romualdez’s claims that his direct influence was minimized during bicameral conference panels and small committee meetings, where illegal budget modifications allegedly occurred.
“Nothing moves in the House without the imprimatur of its leadership,” Marcoleta countered. “The speaker of the House is not a ceremonial figure. He is not just a passive participant.”
Marcoleta’s counter-argument followed an 11-minute video address published by the Leyte lawmaker, where Romualdez denied acting as the “mastermind” behind the 2025 fiscal budget insertions and subsequent flood control anomalies.
In that video, Romualdez pointed to Escudero and fugitive former Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Zaldy Co as the primary figures orchestrating those key funding choices.
“However, two people were instrumental in making those budget decisions: Chiz Escudero and Zaldy Co,” Romualdez previously said.
The dynamic between the former leaders remains heavily restricted as both Escudero and Romualdez are currently prohibited from departing the Philippines under precautionary hold departure orders issued by the Sandiganbayan, ahead of anticipated plunder charges to be filed by the Office of the Ombudsman later this month.