FACT CHECK: Marcos, Romualdez did not flee PH over budget corruption scandal

Claim: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and former House speaker Martin Romualdez have already fled the Philippines.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The video, posted on April 23 by a YouTube account with 1.2 million subscribers, has already received 90,564 views and 8,600 likes as of writing.

The video thumbnail shows a photo of Vice President Sara Duterte and what appears to be a screengrab from CCTV footage showing Marcos and Romualdez walking together. 

Text on the thumbnail reads, “Tumakas na sa Pinas? Di na aabot sa 2028. VP Sara uupo na!”

(Already escaped the Philippines? They won’t make it to 2028. VP Sara will take over as president!)

The facts: Contrary to the claim, Marcos and Romualdez are still in the Philippines. No official reports confirm that the two public officials have supposedly fled the country.
In fact, days after the false claim was posted, Marcos appeared at the 2026 National Invention Contest and Exhibits Awards in Malacañang on April 28. The President also attended the 1st Joint National and Regional Peace and Order Council Meeting on April 29. 

Meanwhile, Romualdez’s camp has denied circulating claims that he had already fled the country following the issuance of a precautionary hold departure order against him.

In a statement, Romualdez’s lawyer and spokesperson, Ade Fajardo, said, “Any report or insinuation that he has fled is false and irresponsible.”

A post on April 27 also shows Romualdez at the wake of Dr. Edward Y. Chua, the president of Asian Development Foundation College in Tacloban City, who died on April 26. 

The false claims spread following Romualdez’s April 21 video in which he responded to the corruption accusations against him related to flood control ghost projects and the alleged budget insertion scheme. 

AI-generated: Artificial intelligence detection tools flagged the photo of Marcos and Romualdez used in the thumbnail as AI-generated. 

Hive Moderation flagged the image as 96.8% likely to be AI-generated, with 74.2% probability of it being created using Gemini3. Truth Scan also detected that the photo is 75% likely to be AI-generated. 

Reverse image search did not show any similar photo showing Marcos and Romualdez seemingly fleeing the country. 

Budget controversy: The misleading video circulated after Romualdez denied allegations that he was the “purported mastermind” behind the kickback scheme tied to ghost flood control projects.

In November 2025, former lawmaker Zaldy Co accused Romualdez and Marcos of masterminding large budget insertions and allegedly receiving millions in kickbacks.

In his video statement, Romualdez identified Co and former Senate president Chiz Escudero as “the two people [who] were instrumental in making those budget decisions.” (WATCH: Breaking down Romualdez’s response to corruption claims)

Previous fact-checks: Rappler has previously fact-checked similar claims about Romualdez and Marcos:

• FACT CHECK: Martin Romualdez did not apologize to Duterte family 
• FACT CHECK: Romualdez not convicted by Supreme Court over budget controversy 
• FACT CHECK: Romualdez not arrested in the US 
• FACT CHECK: Post claiming Marcos has stage 4 colon cancer is fake 
• FACT CHECK: No Supreme Court order on mandatory drug test for Marcos 
• FACT CHECK: Marcos is alive; post misuses old news report on hospitalization 

– Angelee Kaye Abelinde/Rappler.com 

Angelee Kaye Abelinde is a student journalist based in Naga City, and an alumna of Rappler’s Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship 2024. 

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