Speaker Martin Romualdez and three other members of the House of Representatives were charged before the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) with graft and falsification of legislative documents, specifically on alleged illegal entries of P241 billion in the 2025 national budget.

Aside from Romualdez, also charged were Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, former chairperson of the Committee on Appropriations Elizaldy Co, and incumbent chairperson of the Committee on Appropriations Stella Luz Quimbo.

There were also respondents who were not named in the complaint filed on Monday, Feb. 10, by Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon D. Alvarez, lawyers James Patrick Romero Bondoc and Ferdinand S. Topacio, Citizens Crime Watch President Diego L. Magpantay, and retired general Virgilio R. Garcia.

The complainants wanted the respondents held criminally liable for 12 counts of violations of Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) or falsification of legislative documents and 12 counts of violations of Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, due to the blank entries reportedly amounting to P241 billion they allegedly made in the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the law on the 2025 national budget.

Article 170 of RPC “penalizes any public official who falsifies legislative acts, resolutions, or official proceedings.”

"Wherefore, it is most respectfully prayed that the corresponding information for 12 counts of Falsification of Legislative Documents or violation of Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code, as well as 12 counts of violations of Section 3(e) of R.A. 3019 be filed against the respondents with the appropriate court," the complainants asked the OMB.

In their complaint, the OMB was told that the P241 billion insertions that found their way into the GAA signed by the President and came from "someone, or some persons inserted - without authority - P241 billion worth of amounts in the enrolled GAB, which then became the GAA, despite the fact that these were never part of the Bicam Report and were never submit to the plenaries of the House of Representatives and the Senate for approval and ratification.”

It also said that while the respondents (Romualdez and others) might defend themselves and say that the blank insertions were typographical or printing errors, the P241 billion is "not a petty or frivolous concern" that can easily be ticked off as a mere mistake. 

In fact, the complainants pointed out that the amount is 4,826 times bigger than the threshold amount required for the crime of plunder.

"Anyone who claims that a P241 billion insertion is just a typographical, grammatical, or a printing error, marks himself (or herself) a very special place in Philippine history as a national source of shame," they said.

"Following reason and logic, then it follows that the P241 billion is not correction of form, but one which pertains to substance that dives deeply into the nature of legislative power and how it is exercised collectively, as a whole, by Congress, to the exclusion of others," they added.

During an interview after the filing of the complaint, Topacio raised the possible defense of typographical errors. 

"Hindi mo pwedeng sabihin na typographical error yan na kinorek ng technical working group. Mahirap po ang laki ng amount na involved. Marami yung blangko na yun, (You cannot say that it is a typographical error that was corrected by the technical working group. It's difficult because of the amount involved. That's a lot of blanks)," he said.

He added that there are several more respondents from the technical working group that they could not identify, but were definitely acting under the instructions of the named respondents. He expressed hopes they would be questioned once the Ombudsman starts its probe.

Topacio denied that the complaint was politically motivated.

It was not known immediately if those named as respondents have issued their comments or reactions to the complaint filed against them.