Former president and now Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared she would oppose any impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Boying Remulla in the House, dismissing rumors that she was part of a plot to remove him.
Fake news from Bilyonaryo News Channel had earlier tied Arroyo to a supposed scheme to oust Remulla, who has been pursuing the mastermind of the flood control scandal — former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who still wields influence in the chamber despite stepping down.
Arroyo, herself a former House Speaker and one of the country’s most powerful figures, recalled how Remulla resigned from President Joseph Estrada’s administration after EDSA Dos and later became a trusted ally during her presidency.
“He became my ally when he became a Congressman during my Presidency and did much valuable legislative policy and oversight for my administration,” Arroyo said.
“Thus, if an impeachment resolution is filed in the House against him, I will vote against it. Impeachments are fundamentally political, and a vote in favor of Ombudsman Remulla would be my response.”
Remulla has been building his record in the Ombudsman by targeting corruption, especially in the flood control controversy, which implicates Romualdez and another ex‑power broker, Zaldy Co, the former House appropriations chair now in hiding.
Remulla said the Ombudsman is preparing what he described as the “grandest ” case against Romualdez, on top of plunder, bribery and money laundering charges already backed by a finding of probable cause. He said the case involves a “conspiracy to defraud the treasury.”
Arroyo herself was among those betrayed by Romualdez, after he broke the speakership deal that would have installed her as House leader following President Bongbong Marcos’s election — a double‑cross made worse because Arroyo had once mentored him.
