AFTER quickly getting a Senate subcommittee to endorse her P902-million 2026 budget for the Office of the Vice President, Sara Duterte on Monday told a press conference her informants had told her a long time ago of the ‘luggage’ of money being delivered to former Speaker Martin Romualdez, her bitter political rival.
VP Duterte’s comments, made in a press conference after presenting the OVP’s proposed 2026 budget, quickly drew reactions from Romualdez and the Palace.
She said that recent revelations of billions in taxpayer money being wasted on ghost or substandard projects had ‘saddened’ her father, detained former President Rodrigo Duterte, and she expected him to say, ‘sinabi ko na si BBM ay hindi marunong [I told you that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. doesn’t know how to govern].he is a weak leader,’ blaming him for the mess that has engulfed both the Executive and Congress in recent weeks.
Speaking mostly in Filipino, she said her father was sad, ‘not because of how they smeared his name, but more because of what they did to the country,’ referring to those accused of corruption in the flood projects scandal, both in the Executive branch and the lawmakers who vet and approve the annual appropriations.
She said that soon after she took office in 2022, ‘we had already heard of the ‘deliveries of money.’
However, she added, it was not only kickbacks from infrastructure projects that Romualdez allegedly got, but also from ‘illegal gambling.’
‘Pure fiction’-Romualdez
Leyte Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday strongly rejected allegations made by Vice President Sara Duterte that he received ‘suitcases of cash’ from illegal gambling operations, calling the accusations baseless and politically motivated.
‘I hear the accusations. Let me say this directly: it is not true that I receive money from illegal gambling,’ Romualdez said in a statement. ‘These stories about ‘suitcases of cash’ are pure fiction-nothing but imagination. Until today, no evidence has ever been presented, only rumors repeated over and over.’
Romualdez dismissed the claims as recycled lies meant to discredit him. He also clarified that he has no involvement in the Okada/Delaware casino dispute that had resurfaced in public discussions, after VP Duterte also mentioned it.
‘On the Okada/Delaware issue, it is clear: I am not involved, I am not being investigated, and I am not accused. I have nothing to do with that case, which is simply a dispute between two businesses. It is only being revived now to malign me,’ he said.
Romualdez further questioned the credibility of the Vice President, who faces her own controversies.
‘It is sad that the Vice President herself-who was impeached by the House for misuse of funds-has resorted to spreading such lies. When the source itself has lost credibility, why should anyone believe these baseless claims?’ Romualdez said.
Palace on Sara: ‘Obstructionist’
Malacañang called Vice President Sara Duterte an ‘obstructionist’ who is trying to derail the government’s ongoing crackdown against anomalous flood control projects after she cast doubt on the ‘stability’ of the Marcos administration.
In her press conference at the Senate on Monday, Duterte claimed that the Marcos administration was no longer stable as the ongoing probe dragged several lawmakers in the said controversy, undermining public trust on government institutions.
She claimed the probe is being politicized and that it has yet to result in any conviction, which benefited the public.
‘Our institutions are clearly abused. They are used for personal gain.and we have already seen the testimony of witnesses about corruption and there is practically nothing happening in our country,’ Duterte said in Filipino.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro, however, tagged the Vice President’s recent pronouncements as lies, which he said only aims to tarnish the reputation of President Ferdinand Marcos.
‘We know that our government is strong. The Marcos Jr. administration is only being destroyed by obstructionists like them,’ she told Palace reporters last Monday.
‘They probably don’t see what the President is doing because they are turning a blind eye,’ she added.
Marcos, she said, has already made significant gains in unearthing the said corrupt practices in public works through the Independent Commission for Infrastructure compared to previous administration.
‘So it cannot be said that our President is doing nothing. Let’s remember that he himself initiated this investigation,’ Castro said.