MANILA — The camp of Leyte Rep. and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez on Friday denied allegations linking him to the so-called flood control mess, stressing that the Speaker does not have control over the national budget process.

In a report, it said that in a statement, Romualdez spokesperson lawyer Elaine Atienza rejected claims that he was the “mastermind” of an alleged scheme involving the 2024 and 2025 national budgets.

“We take exception to the recent public pronouncement suggesting that Rep. Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez was the mastermind of the flood control scheme because he, as Speaker of the House at the time, supposedly had ‘functional control.’ There is no such thing as ‘functional control’ over the budget process,” Atienza said.

The response came after Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier alleged that the House appropriations panel had been making it difficult for the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate Romualdez in connection with an alleged conspiracy to defraud the national treasury.

“The grandest case of them all, the biggest case, is the conspiracy to defraud the treasury. That’s really it, committed through the national budget. So we’re being very careful about every premise that we make,” Remulla said.

Romualdez’s camp maintained that the national budget is not controlled by any single individual, noting that it originates from the President’s proposal and undergoes amendments in both chambers of Congress before final approval.

The statement said the House and Senate versions of the budget are reconciled through a bicameral conference committee before being ratified and transmitted to the President for approval or veto.

“The budget is not drafted by one person, one office, and cannot be controlled by the Office of the Speaker. Let’s us not twist the facts here. The Speaker cannot dictate upon the President, the Senators, or anybody when it comes to the budget process,” Atienza said.

She added that lawmakers do not implement or certify the completion of government projects, saying these functions belong to executive agencies.

Atienza stressed that accountability should be grounded on evidence and actual actions, not assumptions tied to a public official’s position.

“It must be based on what a person actually did, not what people assume his title allowed him to do. Sweeping public pronouncements that point to Rep. Romualdez as the grand architect of a collegial and multi-faceted process involving the Executive, the House and the Senate do not help the search for truth,” she said.

“Representative Romualdez remains ready to answer all allegations through the proper legal process,” she added.

Earlier, Ombudsman Remulla said lawmakers propose amendments to the national budget, including those not formally recorded during deliberations, which may later appear in final versions.

“There’s a period of amendments in the [House and Senate] rules. What you’re looking for here are the amendments that are not on the record—the ones inserted in the final version of the budget, not included in plenary deliberations but suddenly there,” he said.

“Biglang nag-milagro [na kasama na sa budget]. This is what happens in the small committee. They’re trying to stop us from getting the information,” he added.