Former House Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez mentioned former Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, and Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero in a video message released Tuesday night, April 21, as he defended himself against allegations of involvement in the flood control projects scandal.
Romualdez named the three lawmakers to provide context to his defense, which he anchored on his limited role in legislating the annual General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or national budget.
“The House is not one person, and it is certainly not the Speaker alone. It is a collegial body made up of hundreds of members, multiple committees, vice chairs, and institutional processes,” said Romualdez, who served as Speaker throughout the 19th Congress (2022–2025) and the early months of the 20th Congress in 2025.
“In fact, there are around 85 committees, each with its own jurisdiction, leadership, and members. No Speaker can personally control every committee, much less direct the actions of other branches or government agencies,” he added.
Romualdez noted that the Committee on Appropriations, which shepherds the passage of the GAB in the House, has over 100 members, including many vice chairmen.
“Representative Toby Tiangco, who has been very vocal and upfront about this issue over the past months, was himself a vice chair of the appropriations committee in the previous Congress,” the Lakas-CMD president said.
“So I have to ask: if there were real concerns about irregularities in the budget process, why were these not formally raised during deliberations, or even during the plenary?” Romualdez added.
Tiangco became a critic of Romualdez at the start of the 20th Congress, when budget insertions and alleged “ghost” flood control projects became a major issue in and out of the House of Representatives.
As for Co and Escudero, Romualdez described them as “instrumental” in making decisions regarding the budget measure.
Co chaired the appropriations panel during the 19th Congress, while Escudero, as Senate President, headed the Senate contingent to the Bicameral Conference Committee (bicam) on the 2025 GAB.
Romualdez stressed that he had no such level of participation in the budget process.
“I was not privy to what exactly transpired during the deliberations. However, two people were instrumental in making those budget decisions: Chiz Escudero and Zaldy Co,” he said.
“As I already mentioned, corruption of this scale is not a one-man operation. It requires two things: budget decisions and implementation on the ground. With respect to how the budget was deliberated in Congress, let me say this categorically: I was not a part of the bicam and the small committee budget deliberations,” Romualdez added.
“Yes, I was updated on the general outcomes of the deliberations, but I had no visibility regarding the specific details of the discussions, including the particular amendments or insertions approved during these closed-door deliberations. Records would show that I did not participate in those meetings,” he explained.
In the same video message, Romualdez underscored that there were no anomalous flood control projects in his own district.
“If I were truly involved in a fraudulent scheme of this nature, then the first place one would expect to see that pattern would be in my own district, in the projects most easily associated with me. You would have seen it in Tacloban. But I say this with absolute certainty: you won’t see it in my district. My district has zero ghost and zero substandard flood control projects. Zero. And that is verifiable,” he said. (Ellson Quismorio)
