Romualdez tells Ombudsman: Pre-trial recantations should be considered

MANILA, Philippines — Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez believes that while the Supreme Court (SC) has generally frowned on recantations, the witnesses’ reversals in the complaints against him should be considered by the Office of the Ombudsman as these were done in the pre-trial stage.

In his supplemental counter affidavit, Romualdez said that SC’s disfavor only happens when witnesses recant their witnesses in the middle of trial — or those given in court already.

Romualdez cited the case of Balderama vs. People which stated that SC “looks with disfavor upon retractions of testimonies previously given in court” and that “an affidavit of desistance made by a witness after conviction of the accused is not reliable, and deserves only scant attention.”

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READ: Guteza recants: Marcoleta, Defensor tapped me to accuse Romualdez 

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“While the Honorable Office through the Ombudsman in a press conference has already expressed its position that the Recantation Affidavits neither strengthen nor weaken its case against me, and that recantations are viewed by the courts with disfavor, it bears noting that such principle of disfavor applies only when recantation occurs during trial or after a judgment of conviction, and not beforehand,” Romualdez said in page 16 of his supplemental counter affidavit.

“The very stage where such sworn recantations and denials carry the most, not the least, evidentiary weight, since they go directly to whether the case should proceed to trial in the first place,” he added.

According to Romualdez, the recantations must be analyzed and compared with their initial statements as there may be valid reasons why witnesses like Orly Guteza, one of the former security aides of ex-Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co, took back their original affidavits.

“The previous and subsequent accounts must be juxtaposed, the circumstances under which each was made carefully scrutinized, and the reasons or motives for the change discriminatingly analyzed,” Romualdez said.

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Guteza and some of the 18 bodyguards who appeared in a February 2026 press briefing have recanted their statements about delivering money — particularly funds that supposedly came from Co, former chairperson of the House committee on appropriations during the 19th Congress — to lawmakers like Romualdez.

For Guteza, he claimed that it was the idea of Senator Rodante Marcoleta and former Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor to fabricate a story, saying in an affidavit dated August 13 that he he had no personal knowledge of the alleged delivery of “maleta” (suitcases) containing cash at Co’s Pasig residence, as well as the alleged delivery to Romualdez’s residence in Taguig.

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READ: More solons question timing of cash suitcases issue 

Early this August, four of the 18 former Co bodyguards claimed in a report aired by GMA’s 24 Oras that they signed the joint affidavit because they had allegedly been promised financial assistance.

They were referring to the affidavit that they signed and presented during a February 24, 2026 press briefing along with Baligod, who was their lawyer.  The 18 bodyguards made the same claims as Guteza — claiming that they were involved in the delivery of cash from Co to different lawmakers.

Romualdez then used these recantations to bolster his claim that the charges against him, over alleged involvement in the money-delivery scheme and of insertions that led to the flood control corruption scandal, should be dropped.

Last August 20, Romualdez’s camp submitted a supplemental counter affidavit to the Office of the Ombudsman, citing the recantations and the sworn statements of 25 of Co’s former drivers and security aides as reasons to junk the complaints against him.

The 25 former security aides executed affidavits of denial and non participation, claiming that while they were mentioned in the affidavit of the 18 bodyguards, they do not have any knowledge on the supposed delivery of suitcases with cash.

READ: Romualdez: Baligod urged 25 Co aides to join ‘18 bodyguards’ 

Furthermore, the supplemental counter affidavit that Romualdez submitted stated that some of Co’s 25 former security aides were initially asked by lawyer Levito Baligod to join the cause of the ‘18 bodyguards.’

According to Romualdez, Baligod urged them to join the 18 bodyguards, initially called ‘18 Marines,’ in exchange for financial benefit.

But Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla on Tuesday downplayed the testimonies of the 25 individuals, saying that such a testimony affects their case.

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“They are trying to make their publicity to make people doubt we have a strong case,” he said. “We have a strong case.” With reports from Rendell Ivan Manuel, trainee /mr