BJMP Prepares to Take Custody of Former Speaker Romualdez from PNP

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) is now coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to prepare to take custody of former House Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez. “Kailangan maghanda ng tao at mga instruction,” BJMP spokesperson Jail Superintendent Jayrex Bustinera told the Inquirer in a phone interview on Thursday. (We need to prepare our personnel and our instructions.) “Baka may mga motion yan na kailangang iresolba. Ganoon din yung hospitalization. Ano ang status non? … Yun ang mga cino-coordinate,” he explained. (There may be motions that need to be resolved. The same goes with his hospitalization. What is the status of that?… Those are what we are coordinating on.) “Logistics-wise, human resource-wise, kailangan i-coordinate at i-prepare yun dahil hindi biro mag-deploy ng tao dahil ayaw naman namin bawasan yung duty sa [Quezon City Jail sa] Payatas na kailangan mag-prepare,” he added. (Logistics-wise, human resources-wise, we need to coordinate and prepare because it’s no joke to deploy people because we don’t want to spread thin our duty personnel at the Quezon City Jail in Payatas that need to prepare.) BJMP personnel were seen entering the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City, where Romualdez is currently confined while under government custody, around 2:40 p.m. on Thursday. Earlier, the Sandiganbayan Third Division issued a commitment order effectively transferring custody of Romualdez from the PNP–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), which had been guarding him since his arrest last Monday, to the BJMP Quezon City Jail. However, the order stated that Romualdez would be “held therein as a detention prisoner and, as such, the accused shall not be moved, removed, transferred and/or otherwise released therefrom unless ordered by the court.” Further, Romualdez’ camp had asked the court to allow him to remain confined in a hospital, but the motion remains pending. “Actually, yan din ang isa sa nililinaw namin,” Bustinera said. (Actually, that’s also one of the things we’re clarifying.) On Thursday morning, the PNP said Romualdez’ doctors had certified that he was medically unfit for travel. Romualdez was arrested by the PNP CIDG while undergoing treatment for a variety of purported ailments at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center. He is charged with plunder in connection with over P7 billion in alleged kickbacks through various government projects from 2022 to 2025. /mr