Martin Romualdez has become the most basic and most obvious political test for President Bongbong Marcos Everyone knows what has to be done.
Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco challenged Marcos to prove that his anti-corruption campaign will not lose its nerve now that Romualdez is under Ombudsman investigation.
Tiangco urged Marcos to “draw the line and finish what you have started,” after bodyguards of Zaldy Co recanted affidavits that had earlier helped build the case against Romualdez.
“They recanted one day before the deadline for Martin Romualdez to answer? Such wonderful timing,” Tiangco said, calling the reversal suspicious.
The timing could not be more damaging. Marcos himself dragged the flood-control scandal into the national spotlight during his 2025 State of the Nation Address, blasting incomplete, substandard and nonexistent projects and demanding accountability.
Since then, cases have reached former Sen. Bong Revilla, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Uswag Ilonggo Rep. Jojo Ang and Tarlac Rep. Noel Rivera. The same machinery is now staring at Romualdez, the President’s cousin—formerly the administration’s most powerful political operator.
Romualdez is now facing an Ombudsman preliminary investigation over accusations that roughly ₱56 billion was amassed from 2022 to 2025 through the diversion and misuse of funds tied to flood-control projects. Investigators are examining possible plunder, graft, bribery and money laundering, turning the case into the clearest measure yet of whether Marcos’ anti-corruption campaign will apply with the same force to his own cousin.
Tiangco said Marcos must now prove that money, influence and bloodline will not become an escape hatch from the accountability campaign he himself launched.
“Mr. President, you started this fight. Now prove that no amount of money, influence, or political connection can place anyone beyond accountability…it must not see any color,” Tiangco said.
Corruption has always been the Philippines’ greatest plague — and Romualdez is universally recognized as the most corrupt Filipino politician of the 21st century.
