The Office of the Ombudsman will “strongly oppose” former House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s bid to remain detained at a private hospital, moving to subject his claimed medical conditions to an independent government assessment before allowing him to stay outside a regular detention facility.
Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said Wednesday that prosecutors will ask the Sandiganbayan to have a team of government doctors, rather than a single physician, determine whether Romualdez’s condition genuinely requires continued hospital confinement.
“The prosecutors will strongly oppose the motion. In fact, the prosecutors will ask that not just one doctor but a team of government doctors assess whether or not the illnesses declared need confinement or can be managed outside of the hospital,” Clavano said.
If doctors determine that Romualdez can be treated without remaining confined, prosecutors will seek his immediate transfer.
“If his illnesses can be managed from outside of the hospital, the prosecutors will move that he be immediately transferred to the regular detention facility as all other accused in non-bailable cases,” Clavano said.
The Sandiganbayan Third Division has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, September 10, to determine whether Romualdez should be allowed to remain under hospital detention. The decision will determine where the former Speaker stays while facing the ₱7.4-billion plunder case filed against him over an alleged flood-control kickback scheme.
Romualdez’s lawyers filed an urgent motion asking the court to allow his continued confinement at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City, where police served his arrest warrant on September 7. His camp said the request was based on documented medical needs and was not an attempt to evade arrest or custody, citing his cardiac history and continuing medical care.
The former Speaker was hospitalized shortly before authorities served the Sandiganbayan warrant. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said doctors reported that Romualdez had suffered a cardiovascular event, unstable blood pressure and an anxiety attack. Police nevertheless completed the arrest and placed armed personnel outside his hospital room, making him a person deprived of liberty while confined.
The government is also moving to take Romualdez out of the private hospital setting. Jonvic Remulla said the Philippine National Police would ask the Sandiganbayan for custody and seek his transfer to the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame while his medical condition is addressed.
The Ombudsman’s position carries an added personal contrast. Jonvic Remulla acknowledged Tuesday that Romualdez, Ombudsman Boying Remulla and himself are longtime friends and fraternity brothers from the University of the Philippines. He described Boying Remulla and Romualdez as particularly close, but said those relationships would not interfere with the enforcement of the law.
“Wala ho kaming iniilagan dito, wala hong kaibigan, wala hong fraternity brother,” the Interior secretary said, adding that court orders would be followed regardless of personal or political relationships.
Romualdez faces plunder charges alongside former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, his personal assistant Joselyn Tragua Serenio and businessman Felicito Cristobal Guevarra. The Ombudsman accuses them of participating in an alleged scheme involving billions of pesos in kickbacks tied to government flood-control projects. Romualdez has denied wrongdoing.
For now, the question before the Sandiganbayan is narrower but consequential: whether Romualdez’s medical condition requires continued detention inside Cardinal Santos, or whether he can be moved into government custody elsewhere. With Ombudsman prosecutors preparing to challenge his medical basis through their own team of doctors, that question will now be tested in court rather than decided solely by the former Speaker’s private physicians.
