President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. does not feel alluded to by the video statement of his cousin, former Speaker Martin Romualdez, that the buck stops with the executive branch over the 2025 budget mess and the infrastructure corruption scandal.
Romualdez is facing cases of plunder, graft, indirect bribery, and money laundering before the Sandiganbayan in relation to the national budget insertions tied to anomalous flood control projects when he headed the House of Representatives.
‘Whatever defense will be made against the possible accusations against former Speaker Romualdez – that is his defense,’ Palace press officer Claire Castro said in a briefing on Thursday, with Malacañang distancing itself from the official and his statements.
‘And if he is saying that the executive has command responsibility, that is precisely why the president gave orders: the matter was not ignored, there was no cover-up, and he initiated an investigation. So that if there are any anomalies and whoever should be held accountable, they must indeed be held accountable,’ she added.
In a video statement on Tuesday, Romualdez denied he was involved in the insertions in the 2025 national budget linked to the anomalous flood control projects when he was the speaker during the 19th Congress until the early 20th Congress when he resigned last year.
Instead, he said the ‘command responsibility’ on these issues ‘is far more logically relevant in the executive branch, where there is actual supervision, operational control, and implementation on the ground, than in a collegial legislative body whose constitutional role is deliberation and appropriation.’
Romualdez did not name Marcos, and rather pointed his fingers at former Senate President Francis Escudero and former House appropriations committee chair Elizaldy ‘Zaldy’ Co.
Castro said Marcos did not feel Romualdez was blaming him, noting that the executive branch does not only include the president.
‘When the president found out about the anomalous flood control projects in 2025, he himself ordered the investigation. He created an independent investigating body to ensure that there will be no cover-up, especially about the actions and inactions of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways),’ she added.
Castro noted that some DPWH officials have been investigated, including former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan, and are now facing cases before the courts.
Then-Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and then-Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman were also forced to resign after their names were tagged in the corruption scandal last year.
However, under the doctrine of qualified political agency, acts of Cabinet secretaries, as his alter egos, are deemed to be the acts of the president unless rejected or altered by him.
‘As the Chief Executive, what is the mandate of the president? Isn’t it to clean up anomalies in the government, even if it affects his own administration?’ Castro said.
‘So this means that when he saw it, as president, he had the obligation to have it investigated and to clean up any mess happening within his administration, if there is any,’ he added.
Castro said he could not answer the state of the relationship between Marcos and Romualdez, following Romualdez’s resignation from the speakership in September last year.
She also was not privy to when the cousins last met.