Marcoleta’s remarks on TV played in court

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Rodante Marcoleta’s remarks on television, which became the evidence for his plunder case was played on Monday before the Sandiganbayan Third Division for the first time.

The video was presented before the testimony of Maria Melinda Mananghaya-Henson of the Office of the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Bureau, during the bail hearing for Marcoleta and his donors, former congressman Mike Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.

They face plunder charges over a P75 million campaign donation the senator received when he was a party-list lawmaker.

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Ombudsman prosecutors said the donation was not declared in the senator’s financial and campaign disclosures.

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All of the four accused pleaded not guilty.

READ: P75-M plunder case filed vs Marcoleta, 3 ‘friends’

Lawrence Arroyo, the lawyer of Defensor and Espiritu, objected to the offer of testimony of Mananghaya-Henson, whose assessment of the video became the basis of the plunder case.

Arroyo said the witness’ assessment, which was the expected subject of her testimony, is irrelevant because the case is is now in the “exclusive province of this honorable court.”

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Associate Justice Karl Miranda, Third Division chairperson, still allowed the witness to testify.

Prosecutor Joshua Tan asked if the video on Marcoleta’s remarks could be played, which the court allowed.

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In his TV program on Nov. 8, 2025, Marcoleta admitted his “friends” gave him campaign contributions on condition that their identities would not be disclosed.

He said in Filipino: “My friends really gave me contributions. Do you know what their only request was? Just one: ‘Please accept our help’—I was a congressman then—‘Cong, we believe you deserve to reach the Senate, please accept this amount.’ There were many of them. They only had one request of me: that I would not disclose their identities.”

Tan said, “It is Senator Marcoleta depicted [in the video], and it was not spliced.”

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The counsel of Marcoleta, Defensor, Espiritu, and Viray agreed it was Marcoleta who was in that video. /cb