Romualdez won’t leave Philippines, lawyers vow cooperation

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyers for former Speaker Martin Romualdez have vehemently denied insinuations from Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano that the Leyte lawmaker intends to evade prosecution from the flood control controversy. “We don’t have any idea where Assistant Ombudsman Clavano got those kinds of details. We want to reassure them: the former speaker never left and will never leave the country. He is willing and ready to face all kinds of investigation,” said Romualdez’s counsel Ade Fajardo. Fajardo maintained that Clavano’s claim has no basis because the former House leader has remained in the country since the flood control controversy emerged and even appeared before the Independent Commission for Infrastructure. Another Romualdez lawyer, Elaine Atienza, said the congressman – a first cousin of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. – has no intention to flee. “We deny in the strongest possible way any insinuation that Rep. Romualdez has attempted to evade the legal process. We repeat: Rep. Romualdez has never been in hiding,” she said. Atienza noted that the ombudsman has made it clear that no criminal case has been filed against Romualdez. Fajardo, on the other hand, lamented the adverse perception that might have been created by the ombudsman’s “baseless” information on the former speaker. He said they are studying their options on what to do about Clavano’s “false” claim. “We were surprised with the way they did it. Our feeling is that such information should not be disclosed, especially if it has no basis at all. The former speaker has no reason to escape,” he said. Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman said it is pushing through with its investigations into Senators Joel Villanueva and Francis Escudero as it reconciles new evidence gathered from its parallel probe with the initial findings submitted by the Department of Justice (DOJ). At a press briefing on Monday, Clavano said its investigators disagreed with the initial findings submitted by the DOJ and that ombudsman prosecutors need to include additional evidence. “For one, in the case of Sen. Joel, our investigators disagree with the findings of the DOJ,” Clavano told reporters. In March, the DOJ endorsed to the ombudsman its findings on the malversation complaint against Villanueva over alleged ghost flood control projects. Field officers of the ombudsman filed a plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Escudero in April, for which the senator denied being the “master plunderer” in the flood control scandal. — Neil Jayson Servallos