Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said the anti-graft office may petition the Supreme Court after a Court of Appeals order halted its investigation into alleged corruption in Cebu waste management.
Speaking after an Oct. 22, 2026 town hall with Cebu business leaders, Remulla urged citizens to report government red tape and announced plans for a 2027 regulatory summit to improve transparency.
Remulla declined to name the specific local government unit involved in the appellate court order, though a separate P239.7-million Cebu City garbage contract case is currently before the Supreme Court.
THE anti-graft office may go to the Supreme Court (SC) over a Court of Appeals order that halted its investigation into alleged corruption in Cebu’s garbage collection, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026.
“We will discuss it later as things develop because it’s a sensitive court matter, and we have to talk to the Supreme Court about it or probably file the proper petitions,” Remulla told reporters in Cebu City.
Remulla disclosed this information after he was asked whether the Ombudsman was also looking into alleged corruption in Cebu’s garbage and waste management operations. He confirmed that case a existed and said the appellate court had stepped in.
“Meron kaming case dito na inawat ng Court of Appeals yung ginagawa ng Office of the Ombudsman (We have a case here where the Court of Appeals intervened in what the Office of the Ombudsman was doing),” he said. “We are evaluating that now.”
Last September, Remulla announced during Senate budget deliberations that the Office of the Ombudsman was forming a special investigative team to audit and probe LGU garbage collection contracts nationwide.
He earlier said on his radio program in Metro Manila that waste management operations were a lucrative racket involving inflated costs, kickbacks, rigged biddings, family monopolies and predetermined contractors.
A case he did not name
Remulla said the case in Cebu stemmed from about a year ago. He did not say which local government unit was involved and declined to give further details.
He also did not say whether he meant the P239.7-million garbage collection anomaly in Cebu City. That case is on record, though.
In 2025, the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal of eight current and former City Hall officials, including former city administrator Floro Casas Jr. It also found probable cause to charge them with malversation, or the misuse of public funds, and graft.
The allegations centered on overbilling and falsified garbage deliveries under a 2021 contract with the joint venture Docast/JJ&J.
The case has since reached the SC. On Dec. 12, 2025, the High Court issued a temporary restraining order, pausing proceedings while a court reviews a challenge. The order halted the Sandiganbayan proceedings against Casas while the SC reviews his petition.
It remains unclear whether this is the same case Remulla referred to on Thursday.
Garbage contracts on the Ombudsman’s radar
Remulla’s remarks on garbage deals drew a response from the EcoWaste Coalition, which urged formal investigations into local government waste contracts.
The group also asked the Ombudsman to use its Environmental Ombudsman Program, which Remulla revived in January 2026.
On Thursday, Remulla said his office does not pick targets when it builds cases. “It is the evidence we follow,” he said.
Meeting business leaders
Remulla made the statements after a town hall meeting with Cebu business leaders at Casino Español in uptown Cebu City.
The session covered corruption risks in government transactions and procurement, private-sector practices and the ease of doing business. He urged citizens to speak up against abuses by public officials and to report problems they encounter in government transactions.
Officials, he said, should help businesses operate, as the costs of government red tape ultimately affect the public through lost jobs and reduced economic activity.
“Dapat tulungan ang negosyante dahil pagka pinahirapan ng gobyerno, ang tao rin ang mahihirapan (We should help businessmen because when the government makes things difficult for them, the people will also suffer),” Remulla said.
Business leaders raised concerns about transparency and government requirements, particularly in dealings with Business Permits and Licensing Offices and other regulatory agencies.
Remulla pointed to online processing as one remedy. Putting more transactions online, he said, could reduce opportunities for fixers and informal payments and make the process more transparent.
“Most of these processes have to be online talaga (really),” he said. “We will try to make sure that everybody goes online already.”
He said the Ombudsman wants to keep talking with the business community rather than focus only on filing cases against government officials.
“Hindi na man pwedeng puro pakulong. We should also have a way to make things easier and better for people (We cannot focus solely on putting people in jail. We should also find ways to make things easier and better for the people),” Remulla said.
The Ombudsman plans to return to Cebu for further consultations.
“It will be a running dialogue, regular dialogue,” Remulla said.
Regulatory summit set for 2027
Remulla said the Ombudsman will hold a regulatory summit in 2027 to bring government regulatory agencies together to discuss transparency and ways to improve public services and transactions.
“We will be conducting a regulatory summit in 2027. We will call in all the regulatory agencies so that we will know, so that there will be transparency,” he said.
He first announced the Philippine Regulatory Summit on Oct. 12, in a speech marking his first year in office. The summit is meant to identify regulatory gaps, overlapping functions and procedures vulnerable to bribery. It also aims to identify opportunities to digitize permits and approvals, reducing the number of decisions left to individual officials.
In the same speech, Remulla announced an Investment Ombudsman, a dedicated channel where local and foreign investors can report officials who demand bribes, delay permits or abuse their regulatory powers. He said his office’s priority was shifting from holding officials accountable in his first year to helping the economy recover in his second.
Remulla first visited Cebu as Ombudsman in August, when he announced a probe into about P60 billion worth of flood control projects in the province. He said the goal now is to balance the Ombudsman’s enforcement role with efforts to make government work better for businesses and the public. / CDF