FACT CHECK: Romualdez not convicted by Supreme Court over budget controversy

Claim: Leyte 1st District Representative and former House speaker Martin Romualdez has been found guilty by the Supreme Court and is sentenced to jail.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube video containing the claim has 3,800 views, 310 likes, and 31 comments as of writing. It was uploaded to a channel claiming to be a news outlet, which has 170,000 subscribers.

In the video, the narrator claims that Romualdez will “finally rot in jail,” following the Supreme Court’s April 7 oral arguments on alleged insertions in the national budget.

The title in the video states: “Heto na! Nakarma na! Martin, wala ng takas! Hatol ng Korte Suprema pirmado na! Himas rehas na?”

(Here it is! It’s happening now! Martin has no escape! The Supreme Court’s ruling has already been signed! Is he going behind bars now?)

The facts: The Supreme Court has not issued any ruling finding Romualdez guilty of any crime, nor has it ordered his arrest or imprisonment, and there is no credible report supporting such a claim. 

What actually took place were oral arguments that began on April 7, 2026, on consolidated petitions questioning the legality of unprogrammed appropriations and special accounts in the national budget. (WATCH: SC holds oral arguments on national budget, unprogrammed funds)

The cases involve multiple challenges to alleged unconstitutional budget adjustments made through bicameral conference committees across three fiscal years. One petition, filed by the late Albay 1st District representative Edcel Lagman and others, seeks to nullify a P448.5-billion bicameral insertion in the 2024 General Appropriations Act. 

Another petition challenges the 2025 budget, specifically the increase in the public works department’s Special Road Fund from P16.756 billion to P34.748 billion. A separate petition filed by Caloocan 2nd District Representative Edgar Erice and Mamamayang Liberal Representative Leila de Lima questions the constitutionality of unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 national budget.

The petitions argue that such “insertions” and “standby” or unprogrammed funds violate the 1987 Constitution’s requirements on lawful appropriations and transparency in public spending. 

The misleading YouTube video misrepresents the Supreme Court’s conduct of oral arguments as a conviction of Romualdez.

2025 budget controversy: In February 2025, former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and other petitioners filed graft and falsification complaints before the Ombudsman against Romualdez and other House leaders, alleging that about P241 billion was inserted into the 2025 national budget by filling in 12 blank line items in the bicameral conference report before the General Appropriations Act was signed.

The petitioners claimed the insertions constituted falsification and sought preventive suspension of the respondents. House leaders denied wrongdoing, calling the allegations politically motivated and defending the budget process as a constitutional function of Congress.

In March 2025, then-Ombudsman Samuel Martires denied the suspension request and held the complaint in abeyance pending a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the 2025 budget.

In April 2026, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that plunder charges were being prepared against Romualdez and former Senate President Francis Escudero over alleged irregularities in the budget linked to the flood control scandal. – Marjuice Destinado/Rappler.com

Marjuice Destinado is a senior political science student at Cebu Normal University (CNU) and an alumna of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship of Rappler for 2025.

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