The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP-LABAN) urged the Office of the Ombudsman over the weekend not to stop with former Speaker Martin Romualdez in its investigation into the alleged floodgate scandal, but to find the “apex predator” swimming above all the “big fish.”
PDP-LABAN national spokesperson Atty. Ferdinand Topacio said the Ombudsman, as the country’s constitutionally created anti-graft body, should pursue accountability beyond Romualdez.
“Although Romualdez is indubitably ‘big fish’ in the criminal scheme to defraud taxpayers of more than a trillion pesos, there is much evidence to strongly suggest that there is an APEX PREDATOR menacingly swimming above all the big fish,” Topacio said in a statement issued Sept. 12.
Topacio said Romualdez himself alluded to the possibility of a bigger figure when he declared that “he will not go down alone.”
He also pointed to the statements of former Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Zaldy Co as well as the sworn statements of 18 former soldiers, which the Ombudsman had impliedly acknowledged as “credible.”
Topacio also questioned differences in the charges filed against lawmakers allegedly similarly situated in the flood control controversy.
“Selective justice is also injustice. And selective treatment is the highest injustice,” Topacio said.
He asked the Ombudsman to explain why some members of the House, similarly situated as Romualdez, were charged with lesser offenses where bail is a matter of right, while Sen. Dante Marcoleta and former Secretary Mike Defensor were charged with plunder.
Topacio said the Ombudsman must now prove that it is acting independently and fairly amid accusations that it is being controlled by Malacañang.
“Now is the time for the Ombudsman to show to all and sundry that the accusation that he is the puppet of Malacanang, is not justified,” he said.
“He should fulfill his Constitutional duties with a fair eye and an even hand. That is the challenge of the hour!” Topacio added.#