WHAT UNFOLDED at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee was not a pursuit of truth, but a public exercise in accusation without proof. The attempt to tie former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to a luxury property in Makati has collapsed under even the most basic scrutiny.
The case rested on the word of two individuals who have no legal, contractual or financial connection to the property. Their claim-that a contractor supposedly named Romualdez as the buyer-was decisively dismantled when the contractor himself, Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya, testified under oath that he had never even been to South Forbes Park.
This was not a trivial contradiction. It destroyed the allegation outright. If the alleged intermediary was never at the property, the story ends there.
Worse, the hearing exposed a stunning absence of evidence. No deed of sale. No contract. No proof of payment. No ownership records. In any serious inquiry, documents are the baseline. Here, there were none. The witnesses were not buyers or sellers, not signatories or beneficiaries. What they offered was hearsay-nothing more.
What appears to be the core issue is a non-renewed lease-a private matter that critics say was inflated into a public controversy. Senate records themselves show Romualdez was not a tenant, not an owner, not a buyer and not a beneficiary of the property.
Discaya has flatly rejected claims that he acted as a “front” and has even challenged authorities to subject the property to Anti-Money Laundering Council scrutiny. That is not the posture of someone hiding illicit transactions.
Senate investigations are not supposed to be fishing expeditions. They carry institutional power and shape public perception. When that power is used to amplify speculation instead of evidence, it does real damage-to reputations and to public trust.
At this stage, the hearing has produced no facts to justify the accusations. What remains is suspicion, repetition and noise-none of which amount to truth.
Until proof is presented, this controversy stands exposed for what it is: allegation dressed up as inquiry. (PDZine)
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