Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez is seeking a route out of jail, with his lawyers preparing a bail petition in the ₱7.44-billion plunder case before the Sandiganbayan Third Division, the same division that granted former senator Bong Revilla bail despite his involvement in a ₱92.8-million ghost flood-control project in Pandi, Bulacan.
The Sandiganbayan division granted Revilla bail less than two months ago after finding that prosecutors failed to show that the evidence of his guilt was strong in a separate flood-control corruption case. Revilla later posted a ₱1-million bond and walked out of the same Payatas jail where Romualdez is now detained.
Romualdez’s counsel confirmed the planned petition Wednesday, Sept. 16, after the Leyte 1st District representative pleaded not guilty via videoconference before the Third Division. The court also gave him 10 days to explain why he should not be suspended from public office while the plunder case is pending.
The bail petition could give Romualdez a legal path out of the New Quezon City Jail just days after the court ordered his transfer there from hospital confinement.
Although his arrest warrant carried no bail recommendation, Romualdez can still seek provisional liberty. Plunder carries a penalty of life imprisonment, and under Rule 114 of the Rules of Court, an accused facing such a penalty may not be granted bail if the evidence of guilt is strong. During bail proceedings, the prosecution bears the burden of proving that the evidence meets that threshold.
That makes the strength of the prosecution’s evidence central to Romualdez’s immediate bid for freedom.
The Sandiganbayan had already determined that there was sufficient basis to issue an arrest warrant, but the bail hearing presents a separate legal question: whether the evidence against Romualdez is strong enough to warrant continued detention while the criminal case moves forward. A ruling on bail will not settle the question of guilt, which prosecutors must still prove beyond reasonable doubt at trial.
Romualdez was transferred to the New Quezon City Jail in Payatas on Monday after Philippine General Hospital doctors told the court that he was clinically stable and no longer needed inpatient care in an acute-care facility. He remains in the jail infirmary under medical supervision.
Ombudsman prosecutors accuse Romualdez and his co-accused of receiving billions of pesos in alleged kickbacks and other financial benefits connected to government infrastructure projects. At least ₱7.44 billion is at the heart of the scheme, which is the basis for what the Ombudsman said is just the first of many cases against Romualdez. The ex-Speaker pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
His planned bail bid comes shortly after the Third Division dealt with the same evidentiary standard in Revilla’s case.
Revilla had been detained over a malversation through falsification charge involving an alleged ₱92.8-million ghost flood-control project in Pandi, Bulacan. On July 31, the Third Division granted his bail application after ruling that prosecutors failed to establish that the evidence of his guilt was strong. He posted a ₱1-million cash bond and was released from the Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory later that day.
Romualdez is also facing a separate battle over his continued stay in Congress.
Section 5 of Republic Act No. 7080, or the Anti-Plunder Law, provides that a public officer facing criminal prosecution under a valid plunder information pending in court “shall be suspended from office.” The Third Division has yet to order Romualdez’s suspension, instead giving him 10 days to explain why he should not be temporarily removed from his post as Leyte’s 1st District representative while the case is pending.
Romualdez’s immediate legal fight has therefore expanded beyond his detention. He will ask the same Sandiganbayan division that recently granted Revilla bail to determine whether the evidence against him is strong enough to keep him detained, while separately contesting a possible suspension from the public office he continues to hold.
All eyes are now on the Sandiganbayan. The court will decide whether the country’s biggest flood control corruption case will become a landmark of accountability or another chapter left unanswered.
