Recantations can aid Martin, say House allies

Contributed photo shows a team led by PNP chief Jose Melencio Nartatez serving the arrest warrant on former speaker Martin Romualdez, who has a detainee’s shirt draped over his hospital clothing, at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center last night. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla also went to the hospital.

STAR / File

MANILA, Philippines — Recantations of several witnesses in the flood control controversy could help weaken the plunder case against Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, two of his allies said yesterday.

Former congressman Robert Ace Barbers and Rep. Joel Chua said witnesses’ retraction of their testimonies implicating the former House speaker could serve as a mitigating factor in his case.

“Four or five of (18 men) have made their recantations. And this, I think, will have an impact when it reaches trial,” Barbers said. “What that impact will be, I still have no idea.”

“We respect the ombudsman’s findings and we expect that the former speaker will exhaust all the remedies to protect his right,” Chua said.

President Marcos did not intervene in the arrest of his cousin Romualdez, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said yesterday.

“Martin and I are also close, but in the interest of the State, we will do everything,” Remulla said, noting that he and his brother Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla belong to the same fraternity as Romualdez. –  Emmanuel Tupas