Two anecdotes about Jesus Crispin ‘Boying’ Remulla, 64, the new ombudsman:
In the morning of Jan. 20, 2001, then executive secretary Edgardo Angara managed to convince Joseph Ejercito Estrada to sign a letter of resignation as president. Boying Remulla, then 40 and a deputy executive secretary, saw the letter, tore it up, drafted another letter; this time, Estrada was to go on leave, not resign. The President signed it. Remulla sent the letter to Congress.
That is why VP Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took her oath of office as ‘acting’ president on Jan. 20, 2001 because Estrada did not resign. The president merely went on leave. Not resigning gave Estrada formidable leverage. He was, of course, convicted for plunder in 2007 but president Arroyo pardoned him six weeks later and restored his civil and political life. Estrada served two terms as Manila mayor and today, has two sons as incumbent senators.
As a young Cavite politician, Boying bought a piece of property but he could not get the title because a corrupt barangay chairman wanted to be bribed before giving his clearance. Boying invited the official to a cliff in Tagaytay to view Taal Lake. Suddenly, Boying drew his caliber .45 and pointed it at the skull of the barangay chief. ‘Your life or your clearance to my property.’ The barangay guy chose life and Boying got his property titled.
What do these stories say about Remulla? In the first anecdote, Remulla displayed remarkable presence of mind. He knows his law (UP Law and passed the Bar in 1987). He knows how to execute gambits. He thinks long term. And he is loyal to the boss and won’t let him down, even if everybody has jumped ship.
In the second anecdote, Boying showed he is a stickler for legal protocols and niceties. But when push comes to shove, he knows when to draw the ultimate weapon of conviction. Tall, dark, often unflappable and always exuding confidence, Boying can be unconventional but he gets things done.
Today, Boying is Jesus, the savior, of an incredibly corrupt structure of government.
In the 19th and 20th Congress, you have the most corrupt generation of senators and congressmen that ever lived. At least 67 congressmen are cong-tractors. Almost all the 24 senators are corrupt, according to Ping Lacson.
In the Department of Public Works and Highways, you have the most corrupt generation of licensed professionals that ever served in government. DPWH projects are overpriced, employ substandard materials and methods, with many flood control projects fully paid for but are undone, with some built in the wrong places.
In the private construction business, you have the most corrupt, venal and rapacious class of contractors Filipinos have come to know, with lifestyles and tastes that show they are callous, insensitive as nails and dumb as a slow loris.
Only hours after his oathtaking Oct. 9, 2025, Ombudsman Remulla told journalists that his investigators are already looking at around 100 to 200 people involved in the P1-trillion flood project scam. The 67 cong-tractors will be easier to pin down, he indicated.
‘Of the 67, there are about 12 to 15 low-hanging fruits ready for plucking,’ Remulla said at his first press briefing over the weekend at the ombudsman’s suburban Quezon City headquarters. ‘We may have to build up the cases far more,’ he admitted about the others.
‘The cases are there,’ he said, ‘but how do we prove it? That’s our job, to prove charges that stand in court.’
As justice secretary, Remulla had a hand in initiating investigations and case buildup against the suspects in preparation for their filing before the ombudsman. Now that he is the ombudsman, the cases in effect have reached stage two. Ready for prosecution are cases involving ghost or substandard flood control projects in Bulacan involving 20 DPWH personnel and five private contractors. These cases were developed by DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon as part of his in-house cleaning.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the ombudsman is supposed to issue an order making more liberal the rules for making public the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) of government personnel. Filed annually by the president down to the lowliest of public servants, SALNs are prima facie evidence of unexplained wealth against the corrupt. That is why the previous ombudsman, the unlamented Duterte diehard Samuel Martires, made SALNs the most top secret of all public documents.
Under the Constitution, the independent OMB is the ‘protector of the people.’ It shall ‘investigate on its own, or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of any public official, employee, office or agency when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient.’
Relates former Chief Justice Art Panganiban in his Inquirer column yesterday: ‘Remulla vowed to be independent, transparent and accountable. Equally important, he said that his first order of business would be case buildup and the securing of evidence to forestall any ‘delaying tactics’ that hampered cases in the past. Moreover, he vowed, ‘There are no sacred cows here. So, whoever is involved, even a senator, we’ll make sure to finish the job.
‘I believe that if Remulla, his deputies and assistants would be transparent, open and accountable in their investigations, hearings and gathering of sufficient verifiable evidence, and to speed up the trials in the Sandiganbayan, he could be the hero that our people need and want. He could be the white knight who would rescue us from plunderers and scammers.
‘By doing his job well and using his enormous powers and resources adeptly, he could skillfully render irrelevant the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, because his investigators could easily perform the ICI’s duties and functions. In this way, one more layer of the bureaucracy would be eliminated and the controversies hounding the commission and its members would cease.’