Remulla maintains he didn’t initiate Marcoleta probe

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla —PHOTO BY MARY JOY SALCEDO/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines — After saying on Monday that a plunder case will be filed against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta within the week, an announcement that triggered an Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) rally on Edsa the following day, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla now wants one thing clarified.

At a speaking engagement on Tuesday, as the INC protest action was building up, Remulla said he was not the one who ordered the investigation of Marcoleta over a P75-million campaign donation that the senator failed to declare as required by election laws.

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Remulla maintained that it was a team within the Office of the Ombudsman that initiated the probe because “the evidence presents itself.”

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“Today there’s a big rally or a commotion in Edsa, and of course our friends from the INC are the ones who instigated it due to a feeling that they have that Rodante Marcoleta is being singled out among other people,” Remulla said in a speech.

READ: INC decries raps set vs Marcoleta as ‘selective  justice’

“We all know that is not true,” he said during the launch of a field investigation course gathering about 60 personnel of the antigraft body. A video of his speech was released to reporters on Wednesday.

Motu proprio

Remulla explained that the Ombudsman has motu proprio powers, or that it can start an investigation without being formally approached by a complainant.

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READ: Marcos on INC’s selective justice line on Marcoleta: I believe they’re wrong

But he stressed that “I never instructed anybody to conduct the investigation. It was brought up by, I don’t know what team, and the work was good. So I said, ‘we will file a case.’”

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“I mean, when the evidence presents itself in front of you, you might as well bring it to court,” the Ombudsman said.

Remulla was apparently referring to Marcoleta’s November 2025 interview on national TV, where the latter disclosed that “friends” gave him campaign funds for his senatorial run in the May elections, but on the condition that they remain anonymous.

Marcoleta, who was a party list congressman when he ran for senator, then spoke of a P75-million donation coming from three donors. But the amount was not declared in his statement of contribution and expenditure (Soce), a document required by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), as well as in his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN).

Cleared by Comelec

In March this year, the Comelec cleared Marcoleta of any election offense arising from the nondisclosure. The poll body’s chair, George Erwin Garcia, then noted that the senator received the donations prior to the start of the campaign period for the 2025 elections.

But two months later, the Ombudsman’s field investigation bureau in Luzon recommended plunder and indirect bribery charges against Marcoleta and three donors—namely former Rep. Mike Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.

In his counteraffidavit, the senator explained that the P75-million donation that he said he received in January 2025 was no longer declared in his SALN because the money was already spent during the campaign.

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It was also not reflected in the Soce he submitted to the Comelec because the donation was made before the campaign period started in February last year, he added. /cb