Madriaga felt ‘betrayed’ by VP Sara over Roque case

Ramil Madriaga, who identified himself as being a former "bagman" for Vice President Sara Duterte, said he went from receiving a birthday greeting from her to feeling "betrayed" by her.

At House justice panel’s hearing on the impeachment complaints against Duterte on Tuesday, Madriaga testified about his dealings with the Vice President in a public forum for the first time.

During the hearing, a video of the Vice President’s birthday greeting to Madriaga was played. “Happy birthday, Sir Ram, I wish you health and happiness,” she said in the video.

Madriaga said he was part of a group called ISIP, or the Initiative for Social Justice, Innovation, and Progress Pilipinas or ISIP Pilipinas, Inc.—which, he added, for them also stood for "Inday Sara is my President"—a fundraising vehicle for what was supposed to be the 2022 presidential bid of the then-Davao City mayor.

Likewise, Madriaga alleged that Pharmally financial officer Lin Wei Xiong was one of ISIP’s funders and poured in as much as P175 million to the group.

Madriaga also said he felt betrayed by Duterte, claiming she refused to stop lawyer Harry Roque from filing kidnapping charges against him.

Roque’s filing of charges, Madriaga said, was a retaliatory move against him for helping Bataan farmers who had been promised land by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in their legal battle against Roque.

“I felt betrayed that despite all my efforts to support Sara—to the extent of even committing high-risk acts for her and her family, she did not lift a finger to stop Atty. Roque, who is her known ally and supporter, from filing the unfounded kidnapping case against me,” Madriaga said.

He said the Vice President visited him in jail in October 2025 and apologized for failing to help with his case, but he added the gesture rang hollow.

“I felt bad and disappointed given that Atty. Harry Roque filed the case against me in retaliation after I tried to expose his land-grabbing activities in Mariveles, Bataan, together with his Philippine Offshore Gaming operators partners,” Madriaga said.

Roque is overseas but is facing non-bailable qualified human trafficking charges linked to his role as legal counsel for real estate firms Whirlwind Corporation and Lucky South 99.

The farmers from Bataan, on the other hand, have filed a land-grabbing complaint against the former Palace spokesman over 400 hectares in Mariveles, Bataan, alleging he used falsified documents to deprive them of their Certificate of Land Ownership Award.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced last month that it has launched an investigation into the farmers’ complaint.

Roque had earlier dismissed the land-grabbing allegations and insisted that it was Madriaga who was guilty of multiple crimes.

“If I had committed any such act, the proper case would be civil in nature and should have been filed in the proper forum. These attacks only began after I rejected Ramil Madriaga’s offer of P5 million in exchange for dropping the case, betraying my client, and abandoning the prosecution against him and his co-accused. This is a clear attempt to intimidate me and derail the case,” Roque told GMA News when Madriaga made the allegations in December 2025.

“This will not work. The public knows better,” Roque added.

The Vice President's camp has dismissed Madriaga as "the weakest link," if not a polluted source, amid two pending kidnapping charges lodged against him. — BM, GMA News