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The Witness Who Knew Too Much—and Named Everyone but the Speaker

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Louis ‘Barok’ Biraogo

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The star witness named Co, Bernardo, Estrada, and Revilla. Then he named the one person he never dealt with: the accused

By Louis “Barok” C. Biraogo — October 28, 2026

ALLOW me to point at the elephant before the headlines dress it up in a tuxedo and call it a verdict: Martin Romualdez’s name did not appear on John Carlo Rivera’s list of flood control “proponents,” as reported by Bilyonaryo News Channel and GMA News Online. The former Speaker’s defense team is surely popping champagne over this.

But before we hand Romualdez a get-out-of-plunder-free card, let’s do what the prosecutors apparently haven’t: read the fine print, check the arithmetic, and ask why the witness’s testimony smells less like exoneration and more like a carefully scoped narrative with a very convenient hole.

The Elephant Wasn’t on the List. That’s Why He’s Wearing the Tuxedo.

The Witness Who Knew Too Little (and Too Much)

Rivera is not some random bystander. He is the man who, by his own admission, personally collected and counted at least ₱5 billion in alleged kickbacks from Bulacan flood control contractors between 2022 and 2025. He coordinated deliveries, marked amounts on Post-it notes, and handed the cash to his boss, Henry Alcantara.

He admitted under oath that the collection was illegal and that he did it anyway because he was “just following orders.” He even received a ₱10,000 monthly stipend on top of his government salary for his trouble.

So when Rivera tells the Sandiganbayan that Romualdez wasn’t on the list, we are not hearing from a naïve clerk who stumbled onto a spreadsheet. We are hearing from a self-confessed bagman who handled the money, knew the contractors, and knew the system. The question is not whether he could have named Romualdez. The question is why he didn’t—or why the list he compiled didn’t.

The answer, according to Rivera himself, is damningly simple: the names on the list came from Alcantara. Rivera did not independently identify the proponents. He relayed what his superior fed him.

The list is therefore not an exculpatory document. It is a record of what Alcantara chose to tell Rivera. If Alcantara had reasons to keep Romualdez off that particular piece of paper—whether to protect the Speaker, to compartmentalize the operation, or simply because the list served a different purpose—Rivera would never have known.

This is not exoneration. This is hearsay dressed up as a defense exhibit.

The Math That Should Bother Everyone

Now let’s talk about the numbers, because this is where the prosecution’s case becomes a forensic trainwreck that the Sandiganbayan cannot ignore.

Rivera testified that ₱35 billion in Bulacan projects yielded around ₱5 billion in kickbacks. He cited annual project figures of ₱519 million (2022), ₱12.93 billion (2023), ₱14.19 billion (2024), and ₱7.385 billion (2025).

But the Manila Standard’s account of the same testimony reports that Rivera said the proponents received 25 percent “commitments,” which the court calculated at around ₱5.56 billion—based on ₱22.25 billion worth of projects with commitments.

So which is it? ₱35 billion in projects or ₱22.25 billion? ₱5 billion in kickbacks or ₱5.56 billion? And why does the Ombudsman’s plunder charge allege ₱7.44 billion when the witness’s own numbers don’t add up to that figure?

These are not academic quibbles. Plunder requires proof of ill-gotten wealth in the aggregate amount of at least ₱50 million, amassed through a combination or series of criminal acts. If the prosecution cannot even reconcile its own witness’s arithmetic, how does it expect the court to find strong evidence of guilt for bail purposes—let alone beyond reasonable doubt at trial?

The discrepancy matters because the defense will seize on it. If Rivera’s figures are unreliable, his credibility collapses. And if his credibility collapses, the prosecution’s entire narrative of a systematic ₱5-billion collection scheme becomes a house of cards.

The Convenient Forgetting of Leyte

One detail buried in the reporting deserves far more attention than it has received. Rivera confirmed that the alleged commitments he described were tied to projects in Bulacan—not Leyte, the province Romualdez represents in Congress.

This is significant. The plunder charge against Romualdez alleges a scheme connected to his position as Speaker and his influence over the national budget. But if the only projects Rivera can actually trace to the kickback machinery are in Bulacan, and if the beneficiaries he names are Co, Bernardo, Estrada, and Revilla—not Romualdez—then the prosecution needs something more than the Speaker’s institutional proximity to make its case.

What does the prosecution have? Alcantara testified that the “commitments” rose from 20 percent to 25 percent after Co became appropriations chair and Romualdez became Speaker. That is suggestive. It is not proof.

A percentage increase coinciding with a leadership change is circumstantial evidence at best. It does not establish that Romualdez received a single peso, knew about the scheme, or agreed to participate in it.

The defense’s argument—that the indictment rests on a chain of speculation—is not frivolous. It is, in fact, the most honest description of the prosecution’s evidentiary posture that anyone has offered.

The Witness Who Wasn’t There

Let’s also remember what Rivera did not say. He did not testify that he delivered money to Romualdez. He did not testify that he saw Romualdez receive money. He did not testify that Romualdez instructed him to do anything.

His knowledge of the alleged beneficiaries came entirely from Alcantara. His knowledge of the distribution chain stopped at Alcantara’s door.

This is not a star witness. This is a relay station.

Compare this to the testimony of Wirt Walter Rosales, Alcantara’s former personal assistant, who testified that he personally delivered suitcases of cash to Zaldy Co’s residences—up to ₱30 million per suitcase—and that Co’s aides signed acknowledgment receipts before the receipts were destroyed on Alcantara’s orders. Rosales’ testimony has its own problems (he admitted he was “not sure” of the total), but at least he describes acts he personally performed and observed.

Rivera describes a list he compiled from someone else’s information. That is not nothing—it corroborates the existence of a kickback system. But it is not evidence that Romualdez was part of it.

What the Court Should Actually Do

The Sandiganbayan’s task at this bail hearing is not to determine guilt or innocence. It is to determine whether the evidence of guilt is strong—a standard that requires more than suspicion, more than association, and more than a witness whose testimony conveniently stops just short of the accused. The Supreme Court’s bail rulings in Enrile v. Sandiganbayan and People v. Estrada frame that inquiry.

Rivera’s testimony, fairly read, does two things:

  • First, it strengthens the case against Zaldy Co, Henry Alcantara, and the contractors who allegedly paid the fees.
  • Second, it weakens the case against Romualdez by demonstrating that the prosecution’s own witness—a man who handled the money—cannot place the former Speaker anywhere near the cash.

That is not a defense victory. It is an evidentiary gap. And the prosecution has not yet shown how it intends to bridge it.

If the Ombudsman has other evidence—financial records, communications, corroborating witnesses who can directly link Romualdez to the scheme—now is the time to produce it. If it does not, then the Sandiganbayan must ask itself a uncomfortable question: is this prosecution based on evidence, or on the political convenience of a former Speaker who has become expendable?

Romualdez may be guilty. He may be innocent. Rivera’s testimony does not resolve that question. It only proves that the prosecution’s case is messier, more contradictory, and more dependent on inference than its architects would like the public to believe.

And in a plunder case where the stakes are life imprisonment and the defendant is the President’s cousin, “messy” is not good enough.

Key Citations

A. Primary News Reports (Rivera Testimony)

B. Supporting News Reports

C. Supreme Court Decisions and Statutory Authorities

  • Enrile v. Sandiganbayan. G.R. No. 213847, 18 Aug. 2015. Supreme Court E-Library, elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph.
  • People v. Estrada. G.R. No. 213455, 11 Aug. 2015. LawPhil Project, lawphil.net.
  • Republic Act No. 7080 (Anti-Plunder Act), as amended by Republic Act No. 7659 (1993). LawPhil Project, lawphil.net.
Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo

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