Baligod group shows up in Senate but snubs panel
The 18 men who claimed to have served as “bagmen” of former Rep. Zaldy Co and delivered suitcases of cash to several government officials arrived at the Senate on Monday following the invitation of the Senate blue ribbon committee.
But they did not attend the “consultative meeting” held by the panel led by the bloc of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, the acting Senate President. Instead, the 18 men and their lawyer, Levito Baligod, went to the office of Sen. Robinhood Padilla, where they held a press conference.
Padilla told reporters it was up to his “guests,” whom he escorted inside the Senate premises, if they wanted to attend the meeting presided over by the panel’s newly installed chair, Sen. Erwin Tulfo.
The majority bloc senators expressed dismay at the absence of the 18 men, who had earlier claimed to be former Marine soldiers.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo criticized the group’s non-appearance and questioned their credibility, branding them as “18 kargadors” (porters).
“Let me call them 18 ‘kargadors’ because, according to their own account… that was their job—carrying and loading luggage,” Tulfo said, adding that they should not be called “Marines” and portrayed as “heroes.”
The meeting was eventually suspended “until further notice” following news of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Mindanao.
But before the suspension, Sen. Francis Pangilinan asked the panel to invite the group again to the next hearing.
“At the proper time, if they continue to refuse, we can compel them to attend, subpoena them. If they refuse, we can cite them in contempt and maybe have them arrested when the blue ribbon committee is fully constituted,” he said.
Tulfo agreed, saying: “Definitely, they went here to insult us, they went to the office of one of our colleagues to hold a press conference. But they did not want to attend this meeting.”
Not proper hearing yet
Tulfo explained that the 18 individuals could not be cited in contempt for not attending Monday’s meeting because it wasn’t a proper hearing yet, and what was issued to them “was just an invitation.”
“We cannot call this a hearing because we will become just like them the last time they had a hearing. It will be a sham hearing,” Tulfo said.
He was referring to the June 4 blue ribbon committee hearing held by the bloc led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, where the 18 men implicated some incumbent lawmakers in the flood control scandal, including Senators Erwin Tulfo and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who both denied the allegations.
One of them claimed that he participated in two deliveries of cash-filled luggage allegedly intended for Tulfo.
The senator pushed back by filing a complaint for grave oral defamation in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act against several of the 18 men before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court on Monday.
Legarda exonerated
Baligod, during the press conference at Padilla’s office, questioned how Tulfo could be fair in presiding over the hearing when he was among those implicated in the controversy.
Tulfo said he was planning to inhibit from the panel’s flood control probe.
“Definitely, I will inhibit … During the hearing proper, I will give the floor to the vice chair or we will form a subcommittee, we will discuss on the floor to let Sen. [Francis] Kiko [Pangilinan] handle it,” he told reporters after the meeting.
Another supposed recipient of the money, Sen. Loren Legarda, was exonerated by Baligod, who said two of the 18 men admitted making a mistake when they claimed in their original affidavit that Legarda received two cash-filled suitcases from Co.
However, no corrected affidavit has been submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman formalizing Legarda’s exclusion from the list of recipients.
‘18 basurero’
Malacañang, meanwhile, said the 18 men claiming to have delivered cash to politicians, including President Marcos, should be called the “18 basurero” (garbage haulers).
“Aren’t they collecting and carrying trash?” Palace press officer Claire Castro said in her regular briefing on Monday.
Castro added that she was just complying with the request of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to stop referring to the 18 men as “ex-Marines,” since they were already out of military service when they were allegedly employed as “bagmen” and bodyguards by Co.
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