MANILA: Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez pleaded not guilty to plunder allegedly involving P7.4 billion (US$118 million) in kickbacks during his arraignment at the Sandiganbayan Third Division on Wednesday (Sept 16).
Romualdez, clad in a yellow PDL shirt and seated in a wheelchair, pleaded in the anti-graft court via teleconferencing from a facility at the New Quezon City Jail.
Initially, Romualdez, through his lawyer Jose Roy III, asked to waive the reading of the formal charges against him, which the court denied through Associate Justice Karl Miranda.
“The court will order the reading of the Information,” Miranda said, as he earlier noted that the proceeding is public in nature.
Dennis Pulma, the Third Division clerk of court, who was with Romualdez, read the Information containing the formal charges against the lawmaker.
Miranda asked Romualdez if he understood what the Information contained, to which the lawmaker responded in the affirmative.
“So how do you plead?” Miranda asked Romualdez.
“Not guilty, your honour,” Romualdez said.
After the arraignment, Romualdez’s lawyer, Ade Fajardo, also said Romualdez requested to waive the reading of the formal charges, since it was his right to do so.
“We feel he can waive because he (Romualdez) is a lawyer and we studied this Information a few times, so the reading [of the formal charges] is not necessary, but the court denied it,” Fajardo said in an interview.
“The reading [of the Information] is long, and it can add additional stress, right, but of course since we respect the processes of the court we agreed to that eventually,” he also said, partly in Filipino.
Meanwhile, Fajardo said their camp has yet to decide whether to file a waiver of appearance for Romualdez’s future hearings.
Romualdez’s lawyer Rachel Ann Pomoy told the court that the lawmaker will file a petition for bail for plunder.
Plunder is non-bailable, and provisional liberty shall only be allowed if the accused’s evidence of guilt is not strong, which could only be established during the bail hearing.
Also, the Republic Act No 7080 or the Anti-Plunder Act provides for the preventive suspension of any official facing a plunder case.
In line with this, Miranda also gave Romualdez’s camp 10 days to explain why he should not be preventively suspended.
The Leyte representative had been hospitalized for almost a week before being jailed.
On Sept 7, an arrest warrant was issued by this court against Romualdez, former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co and two others for plunder involving alleged kickbacks worth P7.44 billion.
The amount allegedly came from contractors, persons and entities with interests in flood control, infrastructure and/or other government projects funded under the General Appropriations Acts for fiscal years 2022 to 2025, according to prosecutors.
Aside from Co, also charged were Romualdez’s staff member Jocelyn Sereno and a certain Felecito Guevarra, president of a money changer corporation.
Co is abroad and could not participate in the proceedings as Sandiganbayan declared him a fugitive from justice, while Serenoa and Guevarra also remained at large. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
