Martin Romualdez

Ferdinand Martin Gomez Romualdez (, born November 14, 1963) is a Filipino businessman, lawyer and politician serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives since July 25, 2022. He is also serving as the representative for the 1st district of Leyte since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2016 and as the president of the Philippine Constitution Association. He formerly served as the House Majority Leader from 2019 to 2022, and unsuccessfully ran for senator in the 2016 elections. He is a first cousin of President Bongbong Marcos. Since May 17, 2023, he has been widely considered to be the country's de facto "Prime Minister" (a position abolished by the 1987 Constitution) after the ouster of Senior Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, becoming the main catalyst to the 2024 Philippine political crisis.

Romualdez is the owner of the newspaper companies Manila Standard and Journal Group of Publications and the mass media firm Philippine Collective Media Corporation. He is the national president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats political party.

Early life and education
Ferdinand Martin Gomez Romualdez is the third child of former Leyte Governor and Ambassador to the United States Benjamin Romualdez and Juliette Gomez-Romualdez. His father was once named by Forbes as the 30th richest man in the Philippines with a net worth of ₱3.3 billion, which the Presidential Commission on Good Government claimed was ill-gotten. He is the nephew of former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos and former President Ferdinand Marcos, while incumbent President Bongbong and Senator Imee Marcos are his cousins.

Romualdez attended Cornell University in the United States from 1981 to 1985, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in government. In 1988, he earned a Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management from Harvard University. He later enrolled at the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1988, becoming a Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity member. He earned his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1992. He was admitted to the bar in 1993.

In 1992, Romualdez was appointed as concurrent trustee and president of the Doña Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Medical Foundation and Dr. Vicente Orestes Romualdez Educational Foundation, both of which are owned by his family.

In 1995, he started work as a director and legal counsel for the CARPA Realty Development Corporation. Prior to his political career, Romualdez served as chairman of the board for Equitable PCI Bank.

Political career
Romualdez authored House Bill No. 1039, which was enacted into law by President Benigno Aquino III as Republic Act 10754, or An act on expanding the benefits and privileges of people with disabilities.

In April 2014, Romualdez expressed interest in running for senator in the 2016 elections. He filed his certificate of candidacy for senator on October 13, 2015. On November 7, 2015, Romualdez declared his support for presidential candidate Jejomar Binay. In 2016 Davao City Mayor and presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte also endorsed the candidacy of Romualdez. He ran under the Lakas–CMD party, which he is the national president of, but ultimately failed to win a senate seat.

In the 2019 elections, Romualdez again won as representative of Leyte's 1st congressional district. Romualdez was later elected House Majority Leader of the 18th Congress.

On July 10, 2020, Martin and his wife Yedda Marie Romualdez were among the 70 congressmen who voted to reject the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN.

In December 2021, Romualdez became the campaign manager of Sara Duterte's vice presidential campaign alongside Davao Occidental Governor Claude Bautista.

House Speaker (2022–present)
Romualdez was elected in July 2022 as Speaker of the House of Representatives by 284 House members. During his speakership, Romualdez also assumed legislative caretaker roles for the majority of the vacated districts during the 19th Congress, such as Cavite–7th (later filled by Crispin Diego Remulla), Negros Oriental–3rd, Batangas–6th, Palawan–3rd, Palawan–1st, and Cavite–4th.

In November 2022, Romualdez, along with six other lawmakers, filed House Bill No. 6398 proposing the creation of the Maharlika Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund for the Philippines inspired by South Korea's Korea Investment Corporation. The proposal drew mixed reactions from economists and mostly negative reactions from the general public.

Role in the Marcos-Duterte rift
Romualdez was instrumental in the deepening rift between the Marcos and Duterte families. Under Romualdez watch, the House denied Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte's requests for confidential funds that could be used for the Education department's proposed Reserve Officers' Training Corps program but swiftly passed the same funds for the Office of the President; this led Sara's father and former President Rodrigo Duterte to allege a connivance between Romualdez and the leftist Makabayan Bloc in stripping Sara of confidential funds. Rodrigo Duterte criticized the House as the "most rotten institution" in the country and demanded an audit of the House under Romualdez; Duterte's comments offended some House members including Romualdez, prompting the House to issue a loyalty check resolution in support of Romualdez. Shortly after, the House expelled Duterte's political allies former President and Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Congressman Isidro Ungab as Deputy House Speakers for failing to sign the resolution. Several House members of Duterte's party, PDP-Laban, later party-switched, mostly to the Romualdez-led Lakas-CMD, In late November 2023, reports circulated that some House members want Vice President Sara impeached. The House later began tackling at least three house resolutions filed separately by the Makabayan Bloc, House Human Rights Panel chairperson Bienvenido Abante Jr. and 1-Rider Partylist Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez, and Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman urging the Marcos administration to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's investigation into Duterte's war on drugs; Romualdez denied prioritizing the measures.

A month later, the National Telecommunications Commission imposed a 30-day suspension on SMNI, a media network which hosted Rodrigo Duterte's platform Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa, after the House adopted a resolution filed by PBA Partylist Representative Margarita Nograles, who claimed that the network was propagating false information. Two hosts of another SMNI talk show, Laban Kasama ang Bayan, were detained and cited in contempt by the House after one of its hosts–Jeffrey Celiz–refused to reveal his source for his claim that Romualdez had ₱1.8 billion worth of travel funds.

Amid the feud of the Marcos and Duterte clans in late April 2023, Romualdez said the House will probe into an agreement Duterte made during his presidency with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Under the agreement, Duterte agreed to maintain the "status quo" in the South China Sea to avoid escalating a war. Political analyst Ronald Llamas said the probe was engineered by President Bongbong Marcos as a "political payback" to Duterte's verbal attacks and to reduce Duterte's political influence ahead of the 2025 midterm elections.

Charter change attempts
Efforts to amend the Constitution intensified in January 2024 after pro-Charter change group, People's Initiative for Reform Modernization and Action (PIRMA), admitted talking with Romualdez and claimed responsibility for a signature drive campaign that attempted to start a People's Initiative. The proponents proposed that both chambers of the Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate—vote jointly on the proposed amendments in a constitutional assembly; consequentially, the 24-member Senate unanimously rejected the proposal since its vote would be overpowered by the 316-member House. The signature drive has been marred by allegations of vote-buying, and by evening of January 23, the proponents claimed to have achieved the required minimum 12 percent of national voters threshold. Romualdez denied spearheading the initiative, although a video evidence showing the opposite was later disclosed by Senator Francis Escudero.

Personal life
Romualdez married Yedda Marie Kittilstvedt, who represented the Philippines at Miss International 1996, in civil rites in Hong Kong in November 1999, with a church wedding following at Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati on February 4, 2001. They have four children.