Speaker, 3 lawmakers face graft, falsification raps

Speaker Martin Romualdez and three other congressmen are facing criminal and graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly "falsifying" documents and illegally inserting billions of pesos worth of projects in the 2025 national budget.

- NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

Romualdez, House majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, former House appropriations committee chair Zaldy Co and acting House appropriations chairperson Stella Quimbo are facing 12 counts each of falsification of legislative documents and graft.

Apart from the lawmakers, several unnamed respondents were also included in the complaint for abetting and possibly carrying out the insertions under "unlawful instructions" from the lawmakers in the complaint.

The complaint was filed by allies of the Duterte family - former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and senatorial aspirants Jimmy Bondoc and Raul Lambino. They were accompanied by Citizens Crime Watch president Diego Magpantay and lawyers Ferdinand Topacio and Virgilio Garcia.

Alvarez, congressman of Davaodel Norte, and company accused the lawmakers of illegally inserting P241 billion worth of funds into the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025 even if the amount was not in the bicameral conference committee report signed and approved by both chambers of Congress.

The 29-page complaint also stressed that the P241 billion that appeared in the 2025 GAA was not in the versions approved on first, second and third reading in both the Senate and House versions.

“How is this even possible? The answer is simple: the P241-billion insert was successfully included in the GAA through the commission of a crime called Falsification of Legislative Documents under Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code,” the complaint read.