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Romualdez considered PDL, arrested for plunder—Remulla
Photo via The Daily Tribune
Former House Speaker and Leyte 1st District Representative Ferdinand Martin Romualdez is now considered as a “Person Deprived of Liberty” (P.D.L.) after being arrested for plunder on Monday evening, Sept. 7, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government (D.I.L.G.) Secretary Jonvic Remulla.
Sec. Remulla informed reporters in an interview that Mr. Romualdez had been earlier rushed to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City around 4:00 p.m. after suffering a ‘cardiovascular event.’
“According to the doctors, he’s suffered from a cardiovascular event. Unstable ang [kaniyang] blood pressure, and he was having an anxiety attack.”
Around early night, Sec. Remulla, along with Philippine National Police (P.N.P.) chief Police General Jose Melecio Nartatez, went to the hospital to serve on Mr. Romualdez the warrant of arrest, considering him a P.D.L. after his rights were read.
The D.I.L.G. chief reassured that they will monitor the former Speaker’s health ‘every day until he is well enough to be presented to the court’, similar to former Department of Public Works and Highways (D.P.W.H) Secretary Manuel Bonoan’s case.
Sec. Remulla also stated that armed guards are posted outside his [Romualdez] door, the hospital, and in the lobby.
“We assure you, he cannot hide behind his wealth. No matter how rich he is, he cannot pay the law to allow him to stay in a place of this caliber. This isn’t a permanent situation.”
He added that Romualdez’s room in the New Quezon City Jail, Payatas, “is just waiting if the court commits him and that ‘the fight is fair here’.
Earlier that day, the Office of the Ombudsman filed a plunder case before the Sandiganbayan against the former lawmaker, former Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co, and two other co-accused over an alleged ₱7-billion kickback scheme from government projects.
The development follows a statement made just over a month ago by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his fifth State of the Nation Address (S.O.N.A.), where he affirmed that the corruption cases against his cousin, Romualdez, would move forward.