CHANGING OF GUARD Bureau of Jail Management and Penology personnel are seen entering Cardinal Santos Medical Centerin San Juan City on Thursday after receiving the order to take custody of former Speaker Martin Romualdez. — Photo by Jason Sigales
MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan on Thursday ordered the transfer of former Speaker Martin Romualdez from a private medical facility to a Quezon City jail, although the directive was not immediately carried out due to his pending motion for hospital arrest.
In a commitment order, the anti-graft court placed Romualdez in the custody of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) instead of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
But the court must first resolve the Leyte congressman’s pending motion for continued confinement at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City before he can be transferred to the New Quezon City Jail in Barangay Payatas.
“Pursuant to the court’s Resolution and Warrant of Arrest both dated Sept. 7, 2026 and issued on even date, we hereby COMMIT to you the living person of FERDINAND MARTIN GOMEZ ROMUALDEZ who is charged in the aforesaid case for the crime of PLUNDER, to be HELD therein as a detention prisoner and as such, the accused shall not be moved, removed, transferred, and/or otherwise be released therefrom unless ordered by the court,” Associate Justice Karl Miranda, the antigraft court’s Fifth Division chair, ordered in open court.
The court will continue its hearing on Romualdez’s motion for hospital detention today, Sept. 11. His arraignment and pretrial has been set on Sept. 14.
The commitment order was directed to Maria Pacion, BJMP jail warden, at the Quezon City Jail-Male Dormitory.
BJMP custody
The former Speaker has been confined at Cardinal Santos, where he was served his warrant of arrest on Monday.
The BJMP formally took custody of Romualdez, President Marcos’ first cousin, at around 4:15 p.m. on Thursday.
“Rep. Romualdez will be accorded the same treatment and privileges as other persons deprived of liberty, with no VIP or special treatment,” the BJMP said in a statement sent to reporters.
“Upon medical clearance for discharge and upon order of the court, he will be transferred to the Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory in Payatas, Quezon City,” it added.
Not an ‘emergency’
The jail facility is where Senators Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada and former congressman Mike Defensor are also detained for plunder charges.
Romualdez was admitted to the private hospital due to chest pain at around 4 p.m. on Monday but was not considered an “emergency” case, his admitting physician Kurt Allen Sibayan told the court on Thursday as he took the witness stand.
In his motion filed on Monday, Romualdez said he was suffering from Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, primary hypothyroidism and other illnesses.
Associate Justice Ronald Moreno asked Sibayan: “If the patient, for example, is complaining of chest pain and goes to the hospital, what would you do?”
“If it’s an emergency, they have to go to the emergency room,” Sibayan said.
Moreno again asked: “In this particular case, was it an emergency case?”
The physician replied in the negative and also stated that the medical abstract did not state whether Romualdez’s condition required confinement.
Sibayan, who prepared the medical chart, also said two of Romualdez’s attending physicians, Dr. Rosalio Torres and Dr. Rody Sy, told him that he was not allowed inside the patient’s room, but did not provide a reason.
When asked by Moreno if this was a “usual practice” at the hospital, Sibayan replied that it was not. He noted that it was the first time he encountered such practice in his two years working there.
Torres also testified after Sibayan, telling the court that he was the one who advised Romualdez to be admitted at Cardinal Santos so he could be examined considering his history of cardiovascular disease.
Torres also disclosed that “a few months ago,” he was asked by a staff of the former Speaker to form a “team of specialists” who will provide medical care to Romualdez. He then asked several specialists working at Cardinal Santos if they were willing to join the team.
He said the team decided to have Romualdez admitted at the hospital some time in July for an “executive checkup.”
Not fit to travel
Romualdez did not appear in court on Thursday, with the Philippine National Police telling the Inquirer earlier in the day that he was not yet medically fit to travel.
“[The] latest medical certification of Cardinal Santos [last night] is he is not medically fit [to travel],” PNP public information chief Col. Allen Rae Co said in a text message.
In an interview with GMA’s “Unang Balita” on Thursday morning, Co said the lawmaker’s doctors have coordinated with the CIDG.
“[…] Only the doctors have the right to say [whether he is fit to travel]. The confirmation we have is that they’ve certified that he is medically unfit to travel,” Co said.
In Camp Crame, PNP Health Service public information chief Capt. Danilo Agustin told reporters also on Thursday that Romualdez remained “under treatment and [was] taking prescribed medications for his existing cardiac and blood pressure conditions.”
“No subjective complaints have been reported. However, his systolic blood pressure remains elevated at 140 mmHg (millimeters of mercury),” Agustin said. The normal systolic blood pressure is less than 120 mmHg.
Romualdez was arrested on Monday after the antigraft court issued a warrant against him, former lawmaker Zaldy Co, and two others over allegations that they received at least P7.44 billion in kickbacks from government projects between 2022 and 2025.
According to the formal charges filed by state prosecutors, Romualdez and Co were charged with “repeatedly receiving, directly or indirectly, on at least fifteen (15) occasions, commissions, shares, percentages, kickbacks, ‘commitments’ and/or other pecuniary benefits.”
The amount allegedly came from contractors, persons and entities with interests in flood control, infrastructure and/or other government projects funded under the General Appropriations Acts for fiscal years 2022 to 2025, according to the information.