A Philippine anti-corruption court issued an arrest warrant Monday for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s cousin, former house speaker Martin Romualdez, for his alleged role in a scheme to collect $118 million in kickbacks from flood control projects.
Romualdez, 62, was taken into custody on Monday evening local time and confined to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City, where he was taken after he suffered a “cardiovascular event.”
“We have armed guards outside this door. We have armed police outside the hospital and in the lobby. He is now considered, after we read him his rights, a person deprived of liberty,” said Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.
Remulla said Romualdez experienced “unstable blood pressure” and an “anxiety attack” when he was arrested. He assured reporters that the suspect’s medical condition would not interfere with the investigation.
“We assure you he cannot hide behind his wealth. No matter how wealthy he is, he cannot pay the law for him to be allowed to sleep here in a nice place,” Remulla said.
Philippine national police chief Col. John Guiagui said Romualdez was in such poor health that he could not stand up for a mugshot, and had to be photographed lying down with an orange detainee shirt draped over him.
The warrant for Romualdez was the second court action against members of the Philippines’ feuding political dynasties in a matter of days. On Friday, another court ordered the arrest of Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, for threatening to assassinate President Marcos and two members of his family – his first lady and his cousin, Martin Romuladez.
Romuladez is accused of collecting over $118 million in fees, commissions, and outright bribes when he was handing out government flood control and infrastructure contracts between 2022 and 2025. He was head of the appropriations committee during his time in the Philippine House of Representatives.
“Nearly 10,000 flood control projects worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9 billion) that were supposed to have been undertaken since Marcos took office in mid-2022 have come under scrutiny. Many were found to be substandard, overpriced or not built at all,” the Associated Press (AP) noted.
According to Remulla, Romuladez and several indicted co-conspirators stole so much money from the government that they went on real-estate buying sprees and made big-ticket donations to hide it, including a million-dollar donation to Harvard University.
President Marcos has been embarrassed by the scale of corruption exposed in government contracts, especially those which were intended to provide Filipinos with much-needed protection from flash floods and typhoons. He has vowed to crack down on plunder, and to avoid giving favorable treatment to his political allies or family members.
“Every entity, every business entity, every government feels the corrosive influence of corruption,” Marcos said during a trip to Germany in June.
“What they have taken is not my money or your money or a company’s money. It’s the money from the people. And that is the worst sin of all as far as I’m concerned. It’s the worst form of corruption as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
“We have to find those who are found to be part of this system of corruption, that they will be punished, and that they will provide restitution to the Filipino people,” he vowed.
Marcos’ undersecretary for communications, Claire Castro, reiterated on Monday that Marcos would not spare his relatives from investigation and punishment.
“Those who ought to be held accountable must be held accountable — whoever they may be: a relative, a friend, an ally, or a political opponent,” she said.