Jonvic’s latest tale of 2 fugitives

Secretary Jonvic Remulla of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) gave an update on Friday on two fugitives his agency has been trying to track down for months.

One was described as staying in a posh address in Europe. The other was said to be in constant movement—not abroad as Remulla last reported, but just somewhere in Luzon.

According to Remulla, fugitive former lawmaker Zaldy Co has moved into a “10-bedroom” home in Paris, France, where he has reportedly applied for political asylum.

“He has a house on Champs-Elysees that has 10 bedrooms near a Christian Dior store. Probably such a place is worth maybe 200 million dollars or euros (sic). He’s there now,” Remulla said at the Kapihan ng Samahang Plaridel forum in Manila.

He later clarified in a text message to the Inquirer that the estimated property value he cited was in euros. Based on the current exchange rate, the house would be worth around P14.18 billion.

Co, a former Ako Bicol party list representative, is facing trial in the Philippines for allegedly being one of the central figures in the public works corruption scandal. A wanted man since November last year, he is charged with graft and malversation over a flood control project in Oriental Mindoro.

President Marcos last month announced that Co was finally “captured” in the Czech Republic, where he was detained for lacking proper documents. The government, however, reported days later that Co had been released as Manila could not take him in custody for repatriation without a police cooperation agreement with Prague.

Source of info

As per Malacañang’s latest tracking, Co has applied for asylum in France.

Asked whether the government would ask French authorities to block Co’s asylum bid, Remulla said: “There are conversations going on to that effect.’’

According to the interior secretary, he was the one who informed the President about Co’s detention in Prague.

“There was information there that Co was caught and the Czech authorities were asking who he was. The Czech Republic’s query was forwarded to me… [and] I forwarded it to the President,” he said.

“I was the one who informed the president of his capture. The government sent Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida and our ambassador there. Anything that happened after my information to the President, I do not know what happened,” he said.

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In January, Remulla said Co was believed to be staying in a gated community in Lisbon, Portugal.

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At the same media forum on Friday, Remulla said another high-profile fugitive—gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang—was last monitored to be in the Luzon region of Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces).

On April 7, though, Remulla cited intelligence reports placing the controversial businessman in Vietnam.

But now, the latest intel is that this “unbelievable criminal” is relocating “every two days” within the country.

“Imagine the war chest he has to carry while moving around the Philippines,” he said. “Apparently, his MO (modus operandi) is to move every two days to different places.”

Facing an arrest warrant since mid-January, Ang is accused of being the mastermind behind in the abduction and killing of at least 34 cockfighting aficionados (sabungeros) in Luzon from April 2021 to January 2022.