BAGUIO CITY — Flood control cases pending at the Office of the Ombudsman were getting ripe, and the agency is preparing for “the big push,” Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said on Tuesday. “The next few months will be exciting. There will be a lot of work done,” Remulla said in a press conference after he spoke at the office’s strategic planning conference in the Camp John Hay Convention Center. “We’re preparing for the big push. We’ll have a big push because the cases are getting ripe,” he said in Filipino and English. The Office of the Ombudsman has already filed flood control cases before the Sandiganbayan. In November 2025, the Ombudsman charged former lawmaker Zaldy Co and other persons — including former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Mimaropa — before the anti-graft court in connection with an anomalous road dike construction project in Oriental Mindoro. The case docketed as SB-25-CRM-0039, which was filed for alleged violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against multiple people, was raffled off to the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division. Others accused in this case are Gerald Pacanan, Gene Ryan Altea, Ruben Santos Jr., Dominic Serrano, Juliet Calvo, Dennis Abagon, Montrexis Tamayo, Lerma Cayco, Felisardo Casuno, and Timojen Sacar who were all from the DPWH Mimaropa at the time material to the case. Also among the accused were people who, based on the charge sheet, were from Sunwest: Aderma Angelie Alcazar, Cesar Buenaventura, Consuelo Aldon, Noel Yap Cao, and Anthony Ngo. The case for alleged malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents, which was docketed as SB-25-CRM-0041, went to the court’s Sixth Division. SB-25-CRM-0040, a case against Co for alleged violation of Section 3(h) of the anti-graft law, was raffled off to the court’s Seventh Division. Co, who has been in hiding abroad since July 2025, has denied the charges. In January 2026, the Office of the Ombudsman filed a graft case (which went to the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division) and a malversation through falsification case (which went to the court’s Third Division) against former senator Bong Revilla and six other persons in connection with an alleged ghost project in Pandi, Bulacan. The six others were Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, Arjay Domasig, Emelita Juat, Juanito Mendoza, and Christina Mae Pineda. “All investigations at the Office of the Ombudsman are ongoing — there are many. And our coordination with the DOJ (Department of Justice), which is continuously investigating everything, is continuous,” Remulla said. “You will just see that. I do not want to say anymore who. When it is filed, then you ask me,” he added. “This office will not soften with time. It will sharpen. We will become more precise, more disciplined, and more deliberate in our work,” Remulla said. “At the right time, we will present to you a comprehensive digitization plan designed to strengthen transparency and accountability across all our operations. Digitization will protect the integrity of our records, ensure that timeliness and deadlines are visible and enforced and we can flag the delays before they become inordinate,” he said. He added that he will call for a full inventory of the cases in the office. The office’s Internal Affairs Board will also be reconstituted under new and clearer guidelines, he said. Cabral files Remulla also said his office is looking into the files of the late DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral, who died under mysterious circumstances after she was linked to the flood control bribery scandal. In December, the office got custody of Cabral’s computer. “Unfortunately, there was something we could not see in the files,” Remulla said. “So what we did was to go to the cloud. [...] So we got the record from the cloud. That’s all I can say about it.” “We’re still investigating everything,” he said. In December 2025, the Office of the Ombudsman said the Cabral files were just one part of the investigation.