Lawyer Jose “Judd” Roy III, lead counsel for former Speaker Martin Romualdez, said his client was “confounded” and “bewildered” about being tagged as a central figure in the flood control corruption controversy, as he only did his part to get the budget approved and has no control over individual projects.
Speaking on Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “On Point,” Roy said the flood control corruption involves individual projects, which Romualdez does not control.
Roy said Romualdez was only involved in the budget process and did not earn from the individual projects.
“As far as he knows, he was doing his share to get these budgets approved. And now he’s being made to account for all those acts that he just can’t understand why this is happening, when in fact, the same functions are performed on the Senate level,” he said.
He said that if Romualdez’s acts pertaining to the budget constituted crimes, then the Senate should be held to account as well.
“They’re really a replication of each other’s functions, right?” he said.
Roy said Romualdez could not be the mastermind of the whole flood control scheme, and cited the insight from Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who said that it’s foolish to look for a mastermind in the matter.
“Because the kickbacks, commissions, which, there’s no denial that there are anomalies that take place, right” They happen on a per-project basis right? It’s not like we pass the budget and we take a whole chunk and this is ours. I don’t think that’s possible,” he said.
He said that after the budget is passed, it goes back to the executive, which implements the individual projects.
“And that’s where the money comes out, at the implementation of various projects. So what Sen. Lacson was saying, there are masterminds for each system or each bunch of projects that are being rigged. Yung mga dinadaya, may namumuno doon,” he said.
He said it’s “unthinkable” to put this all on one person and say he handled all these anomalous projects.
“Pero yung sasabihin mong pangkalahatan, parang napakahirap gawin nun. It’s unthinkable kasi unang-una kung maraming projects iyan, can you imagine isang tao lulutuin mo lahat iyon?” he said.
He noted that each district has its own favored contractors.
“In any case, kahit papaano mo pa tingnan, iyang pagyayari ng mga kontrata, pagluluto ng mga dokumento, mga bid na kung anu-ano pa, yang mga ghost project, lalo pa, doon iyan sa baba nangyayari, hindi doon sa budget,” he said.
Roy said it’s next to impossible for Romualdez to control all these.
“Even if you’re that powerful, powerful as Martin or as Chiz, Senate President or Speaker, whatever, unless you control everybody on the ground, it’s not going to happen,” he said.
He also contended that Romualdez did not earn from the individual projects in his district and added that these all passed in audit.
He acknowledged that the projects were awarded to a company linked to former lawmaker Elizaldy Co. He described this as “awkward” but claimed that the contracts were awarded on the merits.
Co is Romualdez’s co-accused in the P7.4 billion plunder case over alleged kickbacks from flood control projects.
Co is reportedly in France where he has applied for asylum.