Remulla sets aside friendship with Romualdez in flood control probe
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla says former speaker Martin Romiualdez has called him 'multiple times' to personally deny his involvement in the flood control scandal, but chose to serve the country first despite his friendship with the Leyte lawmaker, a fraternity brother at the Upsilon Sigma Rho. He also said that he wanted to 'make sense of this crazy episode in the country where people played with people's money.'
VIDEO BY RED MENDOZA
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00:00That's right. It's not easy. Maybe I should first tell you that the former speaker is a very close friend.
00:09You were fraternity brothers.
00:11We are fraternity brothers. We were there at the same time in UP. I was ahead of him in a few years.
00:18He joined a fraternity, but now I was the leader of a fraternity. And we were together in Congress.
00:23He was a majority leader, and I acted as a senior deputy majority leader.
00:28So how close will that be? But it's about the country.
00:34We have a hierarchy of values that we espouse, even within our fraternity.
00:39It's always country first. I think Fred Pascualdo told that. He's our fraternity brother.
00:46It's something that has to happen because this country is waiting for redemption.
00:53But we have to be able to make sense out of this crazy episode in our history.
01:05It's crazy. I don't think there's a better word for it because they played with insane amounts of money.
01:11And if you see, if you were watching the hearings in the Senate, they showed a taper full of cash, as if it was nothing.
01:21And that's all hard-earned money of the taxpayers who worked their butts off, who worked their lives off with their blood and sweat.
01:31And they had to pay these taxes, which just came to be play things with people who wanted to play with people's money.
01:42So Martin and then a Celtico, well, maybe in the next few hours, something will come out because we find a case already with the Sandingan Bayan.
01:52And the recommended charges are either plunder, graft, or direct robbery, correct?
02:07With Saltico, yes. Saltico already.
02:09With speaker?
02:10With speaker, everything is possible. Everything is possible.
02:14You told me before on the show that you're actively avoiding plunder as a crime because it's notoriously difficult to prove because of the jurisprudence.
02:25Does it come to that that you feel...
02:27This is the problem here.
02:30Historically, the Supreme Court says what the Supreme Court says is the law.
02:38And when they interpret a statute that was meant to extract accountability in a very liberal manner, then we have a problem.
02:49It is why we are rethinking our options always when we file plunder charges.
02:54Because no one ever gets convicted of plunder.
02:56And some of these theories are just insane.
02:59When you look at the jurisprudence, some of them are just insane.
03:03Some of them, you cannot deal with it.
03:07As a lawyer, it's very hard to absorb if you really were honest with it.
03:12If you were looking at it from an honest point of view.
03:15Right.
03:15So the easier one to prove would be malversation.
03:19Correct.
03:20Malversation, so falsification, that's according to...
03:24When you have most projects, that's actually the case.
03:26Or even some substandard projects, because a project 50, 60, 70, 80% complete, is fully paid with a certification.
03:40I mean, when you fully paid a project, when you paid in full, it means the work is complete.
03:47But most of it is incomplete.
03:49That's why we're looking at that statute to actually send people to jail for life.
03:54At least the more effective one.
03:57Through malversation?
03:59Malversation through falsification or malversation just obviously.
04:03Isn't it a train-off?
04:04It's less jail time.
04:24That's why we're finding that in terms of quality and whatville.
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