MANILA, Philippines – The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan approved the Office of the Ombudsman’s request for a precautionary hold departure order (PHDO) against Senator Rodante Marcoleta, former lawmaker Mike Defensor, and two other respondents over their pending plunder complaint.

A PHDO may be sought if a complaint is at the preliminary investigation stage or when the prosecutors are deciding whether to file a case against the respondent or not. If granted, a PHDO may prevent a person from leaving the country.

Marcoleta, Defensor, Aristotle Viray, and Joseph Espiritu are facing a complaint for plunder, indirect bribery, and alleged violation of Presidential Decree No. 46 on receiving gifts.

The complaint stems from questions on Marcoleta’s election campaign donations.

Marcoleta, who placed sixth in the 2025 senatorial elections, declared that he had no poll contributions. But later, he confirmed that he received P75 million in campaign donations, but that he got the money before the start of the senatorial campaign period.

He said he did not include the donation in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures because he was not yet a candidate when he received it. Plunder is filed when the amount in question involved is at least P50 million.

“The amount of P75,000,000.00 was amassed and acquired by respondent Marcoleta in three (3) separate occasions through unjust enrichment that clearly form a series or pattern directed towards the common goal or scheme of unlawfully enriching himself at the expense of the public,” the Ombudsman said in its PHDO request.

“Respondents Defensor, Viray and Espiritu should be charged as co-conspirators or ‘any person who participated with the said public officer in the commission of an offense contributing to the crime of plunder’,” the Ombudsman added.

On Monday, May 25, Marcoleta said the filing of the criminal complaint was “perfectly timed, wrapped in legal language, amplified by noise, and aimed not merely at my person, but at my independence.”

“If the intention of these cases is to silence me, let me say this at the very beginning: It has failed. I will not be silenced,” he said.

“A complaint without evidence of public injury, official favor, corrupt consideration, or abuse of office is not accountability. It is machinery. It is pressure. It is a warning shot fired at those who refuse to kneel. – Rappler.com