The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Office of the Ombudsman on Friday formally filed a non-bailable plunder case before the Sandiganbayan against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta over his alleged failure to disclose P75 million in campaign contributions he received during the 2025 midterm elections.
The complaint, lodged at around 10:20 a.m., also named former lawmaker Mike Defensor and businessmen Aristotle Viray and Joseph Espiritu as co-respondents.
The case was raffled to the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division, chaired by Associate Justice Karl Miranda. Separate charges for alleged violation of Presidential Decree No. 46, which prohibits public officials from receiving gifts and private individuals from giving them, were assigned to different divisions of the anti-graft court.
According to the Ombudsman, Marcoleta allegedly received P30 million from Defensor, P25 million from Espiritu, and P20 million from Viray but failed to declare the total amount in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).
Under the Anti-Plunder Act, a public official may be prosecuted for plunder if ill-gotten wealth reaches at least P50 million. Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano had earlier said privately sourced funds may still be considered ill-gotten if accepted by a public official under circumstances prohibited by law.
The Ombudsman maintained that the alleged donations far exceeded the nominal gifts allowed under existing laws and should have been reflected in Marcoleta’s SALN, regardless of whether the money had already been spent or converted into other assets.
“The filing of this case was not a decision made lightly or by choice,” the Ombudsman said in a statement, noting that Marcoleta himself admitted receiving the P75 million.
The anti-graft body also cited one of the senator’s earlier statements referring to “utang na loob” in connection with the donations.
“We honor ‘utang na loob’ as one of our culture’s most beautiful values,” the Ombudsman said. “But it has no place in public office.”
Marcoleta, however, denied any wrongdoing, arguing in his counter-affidavit that the funds came from private individuals, not public coffers, and that the corresponding donor’s taxes had already been paid and accepted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
He also contended that the contributions were made in January 2025, before the official campaign period, making them unnecessary to declare in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) filed with the Commission on Elections.
The senator further argued that the money was no longer part of his assets when he submitted his SALN because it had already been used for election-related expenses.
Marcoleta also claimed the complaint was politically motivated and intended to prevent him from participating in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, which begins today.
His son, Sagip Party-list Rep. Paolo Henry Marcoleta, described the case as “structurally defective, legally incompatible, and politically suspect.”
He argued that the complaint failed to establish the legal link between the alleged donations and any official act by the senator, insisting that the charges were designed “to politically silence” his father.
“The timing, framing, and legal theory of the complaint strongly bear the marks of a political effort to chill dissent, weaken legislative oversight, and silence a senator who has been unafraid to ask difficult questions,” the younger Marcoleta said. “That is not accountability. That is abuse.”
The filing of the plunder case came just days after the Iglesia ni Cristo staged a massive rally along EDSA questioning the charges against Marcoleta.
Earlier, the Commission on Elections had cleared the senator of election offenses but directed the filing of complaints against his alleged campaign contributors.