(L-R) Ret. Gen. Virgilio Garcia, Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, Atty. Ferdie Topacio, senatorial aspirant Jimmy Bondoc, and Citizens Crime Watch’s Diego Magpantay filed criminal and graft complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman on February 10, 2025, against House Speaker Martin Romualdez, House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, former appropriations chair Rep. Zaldy Co, and acting chair Rep. Stella Quimbo for alleged illegal P241 billion budget insertions. Photo caption

A House of Representatives leader questioned the motive behind the motion filed by allies of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, asking the Office of the Ombudsman to suspend House Speaker Martin Romualdez and other lawmakers over the 2025 budget.

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe said Thursday is a “political retaliation” for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment.

Dalipe said the preventive suspension of House leaders is a blatant political maneuver aimed at disrupting the work of Congress.

Davao del Norte First District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez and other complainants sought the preventive suspension of Romualdez, Dalipe, House Committee on Appropriations acting chairperson Stella Quimbo, and the panel’s former head Elizaldy Co in relation to a graft complaint over alleged “insertions” in the enrolled bill on the 2025 national budget.

The petition to suspend was to prevent the respondents’ “power” and “influence” at the House of Representatives, which could be used to “suborn witnesses, tamper evidence, and perjure testimony to escape penalty”.

But Dalipe said the complaint was being used as “a diversionary tactic to shift public attention away from the real issue—the impeachment case against the Vice President and the accountability questions she must answer.”

Alvarez filed the complaint last February 10, alleging that P241 billion was “inserted” in the 2025 enrolled General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

Quimbo and Senate President Francis Escudero had explained that the ratified bicameral conference committee report contained an omnibus motion, which stated that if there were changes between the report and the printed copy, the latter would prevail. Quimbo said the value for the blanks in the report were already determined by the bicameral conference committee and were part of existing documents.