Former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez accuses Speaker Martin Romualdez and other congressional leaders of falsifying documents to insert P241 billion into the 2025 national budget. The complaint, filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, alleges that blank spaces in the approved bicameral conference committee report mysteriously disappeared in the final enrolled copy sent to the President, raising concerns about the legality of the budget insertion.
Former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez filed a criminal and graft complaint against Speaker Martin Romualdez and other congressional leaders on February 10, 2025, alleging the illegal insertion of P241 billion into the 2025 national budget. The complaint, lodged with the Office of the Ombudsman, centers on blank spaces found in the approved bicameral conference committee report on the budget, which mysteriously disappeared in the final enrolled copy sent to the President.
Alvarez's group argues that this discrepancy indicates falsification of legislative documents, a criminal offense under Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code. \Acting House appropriations chairperson Stella Quimbo had previously maintained that technical staff were authorized to make corrections and adjustments in the bicameral report after lawmakers signed it. However, Alvarez contends that the P241 billion insertion was not a minor technicality and therefore cannot be dismissed as a simple error. He asserts that the inclusion of such a substantial amount without proper transparency indicates deliberate wrongdoing. \Alongside Alvarez, other complainants include singer and senatorial aspirant Jimmy Bondoc, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, Citizen's Crime Watch president Diego Magpantay, and lawyer and Quezon City congressional aspirant Virgilio Garcia. The complaint lists Romualdez, Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe, former appropriations committee chairperson Zaldy Co, and Quimbo as respondents. Dalipe, in response to the allegations, denies any irregularities in the budget process and accuses Alvarez and his allies, who are former supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte, of having political motivations behind the complaint. He points to their silence during the legislative process and their sudden emergence as complainants as evidence of their political agenda. Dalipe also claims that the accusations are aimed at discrediting the House leadership and undermining the legislative process.
BUDGET LEGISLATURE POLITICS PHILIPPINES COMPLAINT
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