MANILA, Philippines — A second Philippine senator has been taken into custody on non-bailable plunder charges, marking the latest high-profile detention of a top legislator in a sweeping corruption crackdown that has unfolded over the past month and shaken the country’s political landscape.
Seventy-one-year-old Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, a veteran lawyer who has repeatedly denied all allegations against him, was taken into police custody Monday at the Sandiganbayan, the country’s specialized anti-graft court, located in Quezon City, a Manila suburb. Marcoleta appeared at the court alongside his legal team, where he intended to challenge the charges filed against him and request a delay to his arrest warrant.
Following the court’s ruling to approve the arrest order, Marcoleta told waiting reporters outside the courtroom that all parties must abide by judicial process. “Let’s respect that,” he said, before being escorted away by law enforcement officers. Under Philippine law, plunder charges do not qualify defendants for bail, meaning Marcoleta will remain in custody throughout his trial.
The arrest comes days after the country’s Office of the Ombudsman, the independent anti-corruption prosecutorial body, formally filed the plunder charge against the senator. Prosecutors allege Marcoleta received roughly 75 million Philippine pesos, equivalent to $1.2 million, in unreported campaign contributions from three political supporters. The funds were never disclosed on the mandatory asset declaration forms that all public officials are required to file under Philippine law.
Marcoleta is a prominent member of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), a powerful influential religious organization known for its ability to mobilize mass demonstrations. In a show of force ahead of the arrest, the group organized a three-day rally drawing more than 15,000 members at a key democracy monument along Manila’s busiest arterial highway. The demonstration snarled rush-hour traffic across the capital region for days, creating widespread disruption. The protest was large enough to prompt President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to cancel two scheduled official outings on Tuesday, citing security concerns related to the demonstration.
Marcoleta’s arrest comes just over a month after another high-profile detention: his political ally, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, was also arrested and detained on a non-bailable plunder charge last month. Estrada, 63, stands accused of accepting more than 570 million pesos ($9.3 million) in kickbacks from a government flood-control infrastructure project. The allegations against him were brought forward by a former public works department engineer, which Estrada has vehemently denied.
Both Marcoleta and Estrada are long-time political allies of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte. Their detentions come as the Philippine Senate, acting as an impeachment court, prepared to convene Monday to begin the impeachment trial of Sara Duterte. The impeachment case was forwarded to the Senate in May after an overwhelming majority vote in the House of Representatives approved moving the case forward. Sara Duterte has denied all allegations against her, which include charges of amassing undeclared personal wealth and making public threats to assassinate President Marcos Jr.
The string of legal actions against Duterte-aligned politicians does not end with the two detained senators. A third Duterte loyalist, former national police chief and current Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, has remained in hiding since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for his role in the former president’s brutal anti-drug crackdown. Dela Rosa is named as a co-perpetrator alongside Duterte in the mass killings of mostly low-income suspected drug users and dealers that took place during the crackdown, which Dela Rosa oversaw as national police chief. Duterte himself was arrested last year on the ICC’s orders and extradited to the Netherlands, where he is scheduled to stand trial starting November 30 on charges of crimes against humanity.