His own doing

In the end, it was all for naught. The small but politically well-connected religious sect Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) last week mobilized a “surprise” demonstration by thousands of its members that snarled Edsa, the country’s main commercial artery, disrupting transport, public services, and the daily routines of countless commuters. The rally was supposedly a call for accountability and justice in the flood control scandal, but as the INC itself admitted, the main reason its adherents had massed on Edsa was to show support for a co-member, Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, who, according to the Office of the Ombudsman, was about to face plunder charges.

The contradiction in that position was not lost on everyone—except the INC. The religious group was glaringly silent on previous instances of major corruption—the Pharmally scandal during the Duterte administration, for instance, or in the initial months of the flood control controversy, when various civic groups gathered tens of thousands of people also on Edsa to denounce rampant thievery in government. The INC bothered to rouse itself to a semblance of civic action only when one of its own members faced the very real possibility of being prosecuted for corruption.

Muscle-flexing

The not-so-subtle message to the government was clear: Lay off Marcoleta, or else our show of force could escalate. Unfortunately for the INC, its muscle-flexing left a bitter taste in the public’s mouth. Inconvenienced by the lightning protest, many ordinary citizens took to social media to heap contempt at the gathering, calling out the group for its inconsistent stance on good governance. By the second day of the planned three-day rally, the crowd had dwindled to a few dispirited hundreds before the sect called off the rally altogether on the third day.

Observers who had feared that the INC’s public pressure would work—that the Ombudsman would cave in and defer its plan to file charges against Marcoleta at the Sandiganbayan—were allayed when Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla fulfilled his duty and went ahead with the filing. On Monday, Marcoleta, along with former lawmaker Mike Defensor and businessmen Joseph Espiritu and Aristotle Viray, were ordered arrested by the anti-graft court. The plunder case they face stems from a P75-million donation to Marcoleta in 2025 made by his three co-accused, when Marcoleta was a party list lawmaker eyeing a senatorial candidacy.

The facts of that donation are now familiar to many ordinary citizens, thanks to Marcoleta himself divulging the circumstances on TV. In his TV program aired by the INC’s Net25 network, Marcoleta casually admitted that “friends” gave him the P75 million as campaign contributions in January 2025, some two months before the midterm election campaign when he ran for, and eventually won, as senator. He even identified who these generous friends were: Defensor, who gave him P30 million; Viray, P25 million; and Espiritu, P20 million.

From the frying pan

The disclosure immediately raised a question: Since the money was intended as campaign funds, did Marcoleta disclose it in his statement of contributions and expenditures as required by law? He did not. His excuse? The donations were given in January 2025, before the official campaign period started and before he was legally considered a candidate. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) accepted that technicality, and Marcoleta was spared any sanction.

Except—it had him jumping from the frying pan to the fire, so to speak. By acknowledging that he received such a huge amount while still a congressman, Marcoleta ran afoul of the law explicitly prohibiting public officials and employees from receiving gifts from private persons on any occasion. And because the amount received was more than the threshold figure of P50 million, Marcoleta also violated the anti-plunder law under which public officials who amass at least P50 million through bribery or the taking of gifts by reason of their office can be charged.

Both ends of the argument

Marcoleta also conveniently made no mention of the P75-million donation in his statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) in June and December of 2025. “The amounts had already been used for their intended election-related purposes and were no longer assets held by me,” he claimed—a position that would allow him to play both ends of the argument: He skipped informing the Comelec of the funds because he wasn’t yet a candidate, but then also omitted them from his SALN because he had already spent them as an actual candidate, “for election-related purposes.”

As Remulla put it, “All of the evidence came from him, from what he said in his confession.” And with his arrest, Marcoleta now has a chance to formally justify his actions and marshal a competent defense. That is the just and proper way—for the legal process to take place before a court of law, and not for a crowd of Marcoleta’s partisan supporters to litigate on the streets a case that was very much his own doing.