Marcos vs. Romualdez: A Family Affair, Now With 100% More Plunder

Blood Is Thicker Than Water—But Cash Is Thicker Than Both

By Louis “Barok” C. Biraogo | July 29, 2026

LET us dispense with pleasantries. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) announcement—that cases against his cousin, former Speaker Martin Romualdez, will proceed—is not justice. It is theater. Greek tragedy in barong Tagalog, with Filipinos as the doomed chorus.

The flood control scandal involves ₱56 billion. While Filipinos waded through chest-deep waters, contracted leptospirosis, lost everything—Romualdez and his network allegedly swam in cash. Thirty-five luggage, ₱1.7 billion, delivered directly to his Forbes Park mansions by a Marine master sergeant so disgusted he decided to talk. The irony could pave EDSA.

**“₱56B FLOOD SCANDAL – MARCOS VS ROMUALDEZ: FAMILY FEUD OR PROFIT FEUD?”**

The Architecture of Plunder

This was vertically integrated looting, not rogue corruption. Here’s how the machinery worked.

Step One: The Department of Budget and Management (DBM)—Marcos’s executive agency—crafted the National Expenditure Program. Unprogrammed appropriations exploded from ₱251.6 billion to ₱807.2 billion, budgetary black holes released at executive discretion.

Step Two: The House appropriations committee, chaired by Romualdez’s handpicked ally Zaldy Co, processed the budget. The Discaya contractors testified 17 lawmakers demanded 10-25% kickbacks, with 25% flowing to Romualdez and Co.

Step Three: Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)—another executive agency—implemented ghost projects. Flood control structures that couldn’t control a garden hose.

Step Four: Money returned through shell companies. Marcventures Holdings saw net income jump 298.8% during the scandal’s peak. Purely coincidental.

Former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad revealed ₱1.45 trillion was diverted from essential programs in 2024 alone. Media accounts suggest that ICI chair retired Justice Andres Reyes was stunned by the breadth of the corruption uncovered, reportedly saying it appeared to pervade the entire system.

The system didn’t fail. It worked as designed—just not for Filipinos.

I Am Not the President of My Family (Just the One Throwing Them Under the Bus)

“I am not the president of my family, I am the president of the Philippines” deserves the skepticism reserved for used-car salesmen.

Examine the timeline: Romualdez delivered legislative supermajority from 2022-2025 while ₱56 billion was allegedly looted. Marcos said nothing. Only after midterm losses, 69% graft disapproval, impeachment complaints, and media explosion did he discover his inner reformer.

Romualdez “resigned” September 2025—quotation marks doing Olympic lifting—replaced by Faustino Dy III of Marcos’s own party. Not a coup. A coronation from Malacañang. Marcos methodically isolated, weakened, devoured his prey while performing moral anguish for cameras.

Then Co’s accusation: Marcos personally ordered ₱100 billion in insertions through Budget Secretary Pangandaman. Money delivered to both Marcos and Romualdez. Marcos allegedly threatened, “I will shoot you if you talk.”

Co is compromised—a fugitive whose word alone proves nothing. But structural evidence supports his claims regardless. The “BBM Parametric Formula” (his initials!) factored “priorities of the leaders” into infrastructure allocation. Unprogrammed appropriations exploded. These are documented in impeachment complaints, not Co’s testimony.

Marcos’s response? “I don’t want to dignify what he’s saying.” Not denial. Not welcome of investigation. Just dismissal—the response of someone who believes scrutiny doesn’t apply to him.

Presidential immunity prevents criminal prosecution while in office. But immunity from prosecution is not immunity from investigation. Evidence can be gathered. Impeachment exists—two complaints filed January 2026, both dismissed by the Marcos-Romualdez supermajority in six weeks flat. The accountability architecture has become impunity’s shield.

Marcos must be investigated because:

he exercised line-item veto power over every insertion but vetoed none;
his appointees allegedly facilitated the mechanism;
Cabinet acts are presidential acts under qualified political agency doctrine;
equal application of law demands it;
plunder prescribes in 20 years—evidence must be preserved now for post-2028 prosecution, as with Estrada and Arroyo.

Martin Romualdez: From House Speaker to House Scapegoat in One Easy Scandal

The man’s no choirboy. Still, the way he’s being set up is a seminar in political anatomy.

He claims “self-made” status with ₱3.465 billion declared net worth. A Speaker’s salary: roughly ₱2.4 million annually. Over 20 years, assuming he neither ate nor paid electricity: ₱48 million. The math requires Olympic-level gymnastics.

Allegations paint more: 12 Forbes Park properties, ₱1.665 billion mansion via Golden Pheasant Holdings, ₱445 million Spanish estate via Singapore company, ₱130.5 million Massachusetts property transferred to a corporation for $1 in July 2025, two Gulfstream jets. Under Republic Act No. 1379 (RA 1379) and Republic of the Philippines v. Sandiganbayan —the very case forfeiting Marcos family Swiss deposits—manifestly disproportionate wealth is presumed unlawfully acquired. Burden shifts to Romualdez. “Self-made” is not a legal defense.

Marine Master Sergeant Orly Guteza’s testimony devastates: 35 luggage containing ₱1.7 billion delivered directly to three Romualdez residences, received by aides, some bags opened and counted, post-it notes indicating amounts. This isn’t sophisticated corruption. This is the corruption of someone believing himself absolutely untouchable.

Romualdez’s defenses crumble: “Congress doesn’t build flood control” is irrelevant to directing kickback networks. “Budget preparation begins in Executive” spreads culpability but doesn’t exculpate. “Forbes Park was under renovation” doesn’t explain deliveries at three properties.

His best hope: Arroyo v. People (2016)—acquittal because prosecution failed to identify “main plunderer.” But the Ombudsman learned from Arroyo’s acquittal. This time, Romualdez is explicitly tagged as the “mastermind,” backed by specific conspiracy evidence: the Discayas’ testimony, Guteza’s luggage deliveries, and AMLC freeze orders on ₱6.3 billion. The Arroyo trap? Studied. Avoided.

The Multi-Dimensional Calculus

Why Marcos needs Romualdez as mastermind is brutally rational—less family feud, more cold-blooded arithmetic.

Legally: Arroyo requires a “main plunderer.” Without Romualdez designated, the case collapses—or investigation climbs to who benefited most, potentially Malacañang.
Politically: Romualdez had morphed from successor into existential threat. An electoral liability soaking the Marcos brand in scandal. A rival building his own political machine with resources he could no longer be trusted to wield. An independent operator beyond presidential control—and the perfect scapegoat whose sacrifice would deflect the mortal threat of Co’s accusations from Marcos himself. The President didn’t eliminate a successor. He executed a defector. Plunder charges bury Romualdez permanently; loyalist Dy takes the gavel.
Self-preservation: Co’s accusations threaten Marcos directly. Designating Romualdez shifts narrative from “corrupt president” to “reformer who exposed corrupt cousin.”
Dynastically: Sacrificing one cousin preserves the brand. “Not president of my family” rewrites kleptocrat’s son into principled reformer.
Strategically: Marcos already demonstrated ruthlessness with Duterte’s ICC arrest. Romualdez is domestic application—legal mechanisms eliminate rivals while claiming rule of law.

Alternative Reads: A Brief Interlude for the Devil’s Advocates

Now, a brief recess for optimism, cynics please remain on standby.

Romualdez could be less mastermind than cog—one part of a sprawling machinery of dysfunction. Selective prosecution is plausible—why him and not DPWH secretaries, DBM officials, or the President with veto power?

Marcos could be genuine. But believing the son of Philippine kleptocracy’s architect only discovered massive corruption in 2025 strains credulity past breaking.

Darkest possibility: mutually assured destruction negotiated into settlement. Romualdez accepts “mastermind” label, protects Marcos, for asset protection or future pardon. This explains the “voluntary” resignation and absence of counter-accusations.

What Must Happen: A Wish List We’ll Probably Laugh About in 2028

Here’s blueprint for justice, to be filed under ‘Things That Won’t Happen:

First, a genuinely independent investigation—not the ICI, a body Marcos created and controls. It must have full access to all records, including any implicating the President himself. Every official, high or low, must face equal scrutiny. Witness protection must have real teeth. Due process for all accused. Complete findings, published without a single redaction.
Second, real accountability—prosecute all culpable regardless of position, recover every peso including shell-company assets, return funds to the flood control projects communities were promised.
Third, institutional reform—abolish congressional insertions, ensure genuine Ombudsman independence, expand AMLC authority over politically exposed persons including the President, enact whistleblower protection, and reform impeachment so complaints receive real investigation, not six-week rubber stamps.
Fourth, a fundamental reorientation: public office as public trust, not family business. Transparency as default. Accountability as cultural expectation, not optional extra.
Fifth, justice for the youth chanting “Ikulong na ‘yan, mga kurakot” at every gathering. They deserve a future where public service is not synonymous with self-enrichment, where their flooded homes become an indictment that produces action, not another cycle of theater and impunity.

Conclusion

The flood control scandal is Philippine democracy’s balance-sheet test. If Romualdez is convicted while Marcos escapes investigation, accountability stops at the Palace gate—the system eliminates rivals, not delivers justice. If Romualdez is acquitted while Marcos remains uninvestigated, accountability is impossible.

Only investigation following evidence into the House, the Palace, every bank account that profited from drowned communities shows democracy worth preserving.

Marcos declared his duty is to Filipinos. If he means it, he will submit to the same scrutiny he claims applied to his cousin. He will not. The evidence, fully exposed, would likely show this scandal was institutionalized corruption extending from Congress to Cabinet to Palace—a system Marcos inherited, perpetuated, and possibly directed.

Every flooded community is an indictment. Every submerged home is evidence. Every child who missed school because waters rose is a witness.

Barok has spoken. The cave is open. The flood continues.

Key Citations

A. Legal & Official Sources

Republic Act No. 1379. An Act Declaring Forfeiture in Favor of the State Any Property Found to Have Been Unlawfully Acquired by Any Public Officer or Employee and Providing for the Proceedings Therefor. 1955, https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1955/ra_1379_1955.html.
Republic of the Philippines v. Sandiganbayan. G.R. No. 152154, 15 July 2003, https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2003/jul2003/gr_152154_2003.html. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo v. People of the Philippines. G.R. No. 220598, 19 July 2016, https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2016/jul2016/gr_220598_2016.html.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo v. People of the Philippines. G.R. No. 220598, 19 July 2016, https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2016/jul2016/gr_220598_2016.html.
The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 1987, https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/.

B. News Reports

Lalu, Gabriel. “Sona 2026: Marcos Says Cases vs Romualdez to Proceed.” INQUIRER.net, 27 July 2026, newsinfo.inquirer.net/2271595/sona-2026-marcos-says-cases-vs-romualdez-to-proceed.
Nazario, Dhel. “Discayas Name Lawmakers, DPWH Execs Tied to Alleged Kickback Scheme in Flood Control Projects.” Manila Bulletin, 8 Sept. 2025, mb.com.ph/2025/09/08/discayas-name-lawmakers-dpwh-execs-tied-to-alleged-kickback-scheme-in-flood-control-projects.
Bonzo, Lyjah Tiffany. “Ombudsman to Start Preliminary Investigation for Alleged Plunder, Money Laundering vs Martin Romualdez.” GMA News Online, 20 July 2026, http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/995515/martin-romualdez-ombudsman-plunder-money-laundering-preliminary-investigation/story/.
Subingsubing, Krixia. “Abad: ‘Unprecedented’ P1.45-T Congressional Insertions in GAA.” INQUIRER.net, 25 Sept. 2025, newsinfo.inquirer.net/2114815/abad-unprecedented-p1-45-t-congressional-insertions-in-gaa.