Jail warden denies Martin Romualdez secretly left detention facility
Columnist Ramon Tulfo has retracted his allegations that former House Speaker Martin Romualdez was secretly leaving and returning to his detention cell at the Quezon City Jail in Payatas.
The retraction came as the Sandiganbayan Third Division questioned Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Jail Superintendent Maria Lourdes Pacion on Thursday about the conditions of Romualdez’s detention.
Tulfo had earlier claimed that Pacion was ordering power interruptions at the detention facility whenever Romualdez left and returned, supposedly to prevent CCTV cameras from recording his movements.
He also alleged that the former speaker used a back stairway to reach an ambulance waiting outside the jail.
Pacion categorically denied the accusations.
During Thursday’s hearing, Pacion said Romualdez spent three weeks at the Payatas jail infirmary before being transferred to his detention cell.
She maintained that he was not allowed to leave his cell except during scheduled sunning exercises.
The jail superintendent also explained that she initially allowed Romualdez’s visitors inside the air-conditioned infirmary because the facility did not have a designated visitors’ area.
She insisted that Romualdez was given the same visitation hours as other persons deprived of liberty.
However, Pacion admitted that Romualdez has a personal staff member who attends to his needs inside the detention facility.
She said she allowed the arrangement out of humanitarian consideration, citing her assessment that the former lawmaker’s mental state was not yet stable.
Pacion also pointed to a shortage of personnel assigned to provide personal care for detainees, despite the facility having 24 nurses.
She maintained that the arrangement was not prohibited, particularly when there was a genuine need for it. However, she acknowledged that Romualdez was currently the only person deprived of liberty with a personal staff member assisting him.
Romualdez’s lawyer, Atty. Ade Fajardo, said his client needed assistance not only for his medical needs but also for his general well-being.
Fajardo added that Romualdez continues to serve as the representative of Leyte’s First District and has not been placed under preventive suspension.
Pacion also denied that there had been any power interruptions at the detention facility since Romualdez was committed there on September 14.
However, she disclosed that more than 400 CCTV cameras inside the jail are monitored by only one personnel member per eight-hour shift.
Ten cameras are not working, while some others fail to record continuously due to a lack of decoders, or equipment used to process CCTV footage.
This comes amid Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla’s earlier assurance that complete CCTV recordings from the facility would prove that Romualdez had not left the jail.
Remulla had invited members of the media to inspect the recordings at the BJMP facility.
In his retraction, Tulfo admitted that he had received incorrect information and failed to verify the allegations before publishing them.
He described the experience as one of the most embarrassing moments for a journalist, saying he had accepted the information as the truth and passed it on to his readers.
Romualdez’s camp welcomed Tulfo’s retraction and maintained that the allegations against the former speaker were false.
Fajardo also said there had been no medical emergency requiring Romualdez to leave the Payatas jail for treatment at any hospital.
Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan ordered the BJMP to review CCTV footage covering the period from Romualdez’s commitment to the facility up to November 4 and submit a notarized report detailing his whereabouts based on the recordings.
The court also directed the BJMP to submit system status reports and maintenance records of the CCTV system, as well as access logs showing any deletion or alteration of footage.
The jail bureau was further ordered to provide records of power interruptions, vehicle entry and exit logbooks, and ambulance use at the facility.
The court also sought the identities of individuals allowed to personally assist Romualdez throughout his detention, along with his latest medical report and details of any medical examinations conducted outside the jail. – ANC, The World Tonight, November 5, 2026