Saying it cannot just look away, the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday filed a nonbailable plunder case against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta at the Sandiganbayan over the ₱75 million in undeclared campaign contributions he received for the 2025 senatorial elections.
Marcoleta was also charged with three counts of violating Presidential Decree No. 46, which prohibits public officers from accepting gifts while in office.
Charged along with Marcoleta were the campaign donors, former Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor, Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray.
The charges were filed against Marcoleta immediately after the three-day rallies held by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) starting on Tuesday to demonstrate support for him. The INC, of which Marcoleta is a member, had denounced the “selective justice” supposedly applied by the Office of the Ombudsman in the senator’s case.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla had earlier announced that his office planned to charge Marcoleta with plunder. The INC staged a surprise rally on Tuesday at the Edsa People Power Monument in Quezon City, blocking traffic and inconveniencing motorists and commuters. It continued its protest actions on Wednesday and moved to Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Thursday.
Facts ‘not in dispute’
“This was not a decision made lightly or by choice,” the Office of the Ombudsman said in a statement issued after the case was filed against Marcoleta on Friday at the Sandiganbayan in Quezon City. It cited the evidence at hand, which included “three cash donations totaling ₱75 million undeclared in the senator’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Networth and campaign finance reports.”
“This leaves our office no discretion to look away,” the Ombudsman said, adding that the facts were “not in dispute” because Marcoleta had “publicly confirmed receiving the money, and they can be stipulated at the onset of the trial.”
“What remains is a question of law: whether these undisputed facts constitute plunder and bribery,” the Ombudsman said. “We took an oath to enforce the law regardless of who is involved, and that oath does not waver for popularity, position, or personal relationships.”
Noting that Marcoleta had admitted to receiving the donations as “utang na loob” or debt of gratitude, the Ombudsman said this “has no place in public office.”
“A public official has no personal debt to any donor that supersedes what they owe the Filipino people,” the Ombudsman said. “The moment gratitude is used to explain away the ₱75 million in undisclosed money, it stops being ‘utang na loob,’ and becomes exactly what our plunder and bribery laws were written to prevent.”
The Ombudsman also said everyone’s right to opinion, to demand accountability even from its office, is respected.
“What we ask in return is what we ourselves commit to: let the facts and the law decide, not sentiment or fear,” the antigraft body said. “We did not choose this fight. But when the law leaves no room for silence, silence is no option.”
July 6 at the earliest
As of Friday, no warrants have been issued for the arrest of Marcoleta, Defensor and the two other donors.
The charge of plunder was raffled to the Sandiganbayan third division. The first, fourth and sixth divisions will hear the charge involving three counts of receiving gifts.
At the earliest, the arrest warrants against Marcoleta and his co-accused could be issued on Monday, July 6, when the Senate commences the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, with the senators serving as judges.
Marcoleta’s expected arrest will further reduce the members of the minority led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. There are so far nine active members of the Senate minority—Cayetano, Marcoleta, Senators Imee Marcos, Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Robinhood Padilla, Mark Villar, Camille Villar, and Bong Go. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is detained and awaiting trial at the Sandiganbayan for alleged involvement in the flood-control corruption scandal, and Sen. Ronald dela Rosa is in hiding to evade arrest by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.
Marcoleta has denied the allegations against him, saying they were “trumped up charges against me and some of my friends, and not merely legal accusations.”
“They form part of a deeper and more nefarious design: to intimidate independent voices, to punish dissent, and to warn every senator that the price of asking hard questions could lead to personal damnation,” he said in May, when the Office of the Ombudsman-Luzon recommended the plunder and indirect bribery charges against him.
He claimed the donations, which he received in three tranches in January 2025, came from donors who wanted to remain anonymous.
According to the complaint filed against Marcoleta at the Office of the Ombudsman, Defensor, Espiritu and Viray donated ₱30 million, ₱25 million, and ₱20 million, respectively, for his planned run for the Senate. He was then a congressman representing the Sagip party-list group.
The complaint said the ₱75 million donation was not declared in Marcoleta’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) as of June 30, 2025.
Marcoleta had only declared then ₱39.6 million in his SALN, which he said he acquired from 1992 to June 30, 2025.
The complaint also said the senator declared “no cash or in-kind contributions” in his statement of contributions and expenditures to the Commission on Elections. CS
