MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman on Friday filed a plunder case before the Sandiganbayan against Sen. Rodante Marcoleta and three coaccused over the P75 million that the lawmaker admitted receiving from three individuals, while also charging them with violating the law prohibiting gifts to public officials.
The plunder case against Marcoleta, former Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor, and businessmen Aristotle Viray and Joseph Espiritu was raffled to the Sandiganbayan Third Division. The separate case for violating Presidential Decree No. 46, which prohibits public officials from receiving gifts and private individuals from giving them, was assigned to the Fourth Division.
The Ombudsman said it filed the cases after reviewing the evidence, adding that the decision was based on the facts established during its investigation.
“This was not a decision made lightly or by choice,” the Ombudsman said in a statement.
Marcoleta, who will turn 73 on July 29, is the first member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) elected to the Senate.
The filing came after three days of rallies by INC members supporting Marcoleta. Protesters first gathered at the Edsa People Power Monument in Quezon City on Tuesday before moving to Liwasang Bonifacio, where an INC spokesperson announced the end of the demonstrations on Thursday.
The Ombudsman said it respected the public’s right to express opinions and hold rallies but stressed that the evidence in the case required the filing of charges.
“The evidence leaves our office no discretion to look away,” the statement said.
The Ombudsman cited Marcoleta’s Nov. 7, 2025 interview with INC-run Net25, in which he admitted receiving P75 million in campaign contributions from three “friends” while he was still a congressman. He said the donors requested that he keep their identities confidential.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) later identified the donors in a fact-finding report released in March. The report stated that Defensor donated P30 million, Espiritu contributed P25 million, and Viray gave P20 million.
The Ombudsman’s field investigation bureau recommended filing plunder and bribery complaints based on those contributions.
Marcoleta did not declare the P75 million in his statement of contributions and expenditures (Soce) for the May 2025 midterm elections.
In December 2025, election watchdog Kontra Daya and the Advocates for Public Interest Law filed perjury complaints against Marcoleta before the Ombudsman over the nondisclosure.
In March, the Comelec cleared Marcoleta of election offenses related to the omission, citing a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that candidates may only be held liable for election offenses committed during the official campaign period. The poll body, however, said the donors could still face election-related violations for failing to declare their contributions.
In his counteraffidavit, Marcoleta argued that the P75 million did not constitute ill-gotten wealth because it came from private funds and not public money. He also said he had already spent the money on his 2025 senatorial campaign before preparing his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), which is why it did not appear in his asset declarations.
Marcoleta also described the donations as an “utang na loob” or debt of gratitude to his friends.
Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano has said that plunder may be committed even if public funds are not involved.
The Ombudsman said Marcoleta declared assets worth P39.6 million in his SALN as of June 30, 2025, and P16.7 million in cash and savings in his December 2025 SALN, with no disclosure of the P75 million.
“The moment gratitude is used to explain away P75 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 said.
Marcoleta previously said the case was intended to prevent him from participating as a senator-judge in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte and from pursuing investigations into the alleged flood control kickback scandal.
In a Facebook post on June 30, Marcoleta said authorities wanted to stop him from joining the impeachment proceedings and from pursuing his inquiries into the flood control controversy.
On May 26, the Sandiganbayan granted the Ombudsman’s request for a precautionary hold departure order against Marcoleta, Defensor, Viray and Espiritu.
