Co passport canceled; Marcos vows more cases
Police attachés in different countries have been alerted to report to Philippine embassies any sighting of Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co after the Department of Foreign Affairs canceled the passport of the resigned Ako Bicol party list lawmaker, President Marcos said on Wednesday.
With his passport revoked, the former lawmaker will either be forced to return or be deported to Manila to face a string of charges filed against him and several others at the Sandiganbayan antigraft court over their alleged role in the public works corruption scandal.
“And should he be staying in any of those countries, authorities there will report him to us so that he could be brought back to the Philippines,” Mr. Marcos said in a recorded video statement.
However, Co’s legal counsel Ruy Rondain expressed doubts that the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division had granted the Ombudsman’s motion to cancel his passport. He said he had not heard of a similar motion filed with the court’s two other divisions, where charges against Co were also lodged.
“I seriously doubt that the Fifth Division has canceled [Co’s passport] while I still have time to oppose,” Rondain said.
Substandard project
Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro told reporters that the cancellation on Co’s passport was processed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, in response to a Sandiganbayan resolution issued on the same day.
It came hours after the President’s announcement.
Co as well as 15 officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways and of the company Sunwest Inc. are facing arrest on a warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan, after they were indicted by the Ombudsman over an allegedly substandard P289.5-million road dike project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.
Of the 16 ordered arrested, nine are already in government custody. The rest, including Co, remain at large.
Appeal to Pinoys abroad
Co cofounded Sunwest, one of the top 15 contractors that cornered the biggest pie of flood control projects during the Marcos administration.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier asked Filipinos abroad to help track down Co, who was believed to be hiding in Portugal and suspected to be holding a Portuguese passport that he acquired years ago and now uses to move around Europe.
The country has no extradition treaty with Portugal.
The Philippine government earlier requested the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to upgrade the “blue notice” it issued on Co to a “red notice” to determine his location, effect his arrest and start extradition proceedings.
Since leaving the country in July, Co’s whereabouts have remained unknown. He resigned as Ako Bicol representative on Sept. 29 as the corruption scandal raged, ignoring calls to come home due to alleged threats on his life.
‘Budget insertions’
In November, however, he started posting a series of video clips on Facebook, accusing the President and former Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez of orchestrating the insertions of billions of pesos worth of items in the 2025 national budget, among other allegations.
Co alleged that then Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman relayed “instructions to insert P100 billion worth of projects” during the bicameral conference for the budget late last year when he still chaired the House appropriations committee.
‘Right direction’
Co also claimed that he managed to confirm Marcos’ instructions with then Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin, head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, and reported the same instructions to then Speaker Romualdez, who he said acceded to these. Malacañang branded these as “wild accusations.”
Pangandaman, Bersamin, and his uncle, then Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, had since resigned from the Cabinet.
Co’s video clips were released at around the same time the religious sect Iglesia ni Cristo mounted a rally for transparency in Manila on Nov. 16 and Nov. 17.
In his message on Wednesday, the President also hailed the filing of the first set of cases in connection with the flood control mess, saying the process was “moving in the right direction” and that the suspects in the criminal scheme would eventually “face justice.”
“The Filipinos can expect that our investigation will continue, and we will keep filing cases to ensure that those found guilty of this corruption scandal will face the law, and beyond that, to guarantee that the money stolen by these crooks will be returned to the Filipino people,” he added.
The President had earlier vowed to jail 37 senators, congressmen, public works officials and contractors linked to the flood control project mess by Christmas.
“They will be locked up. They will not have a Merry Christmas,” said Mr. Marcos, who has had to deal with street protests, the resignations of key Cabinet officials and congressional leaders and talk of destabilization triggered by the corruption scandal. —WITH REPORTS FROM LUISA CABATO AND KATHLEEN DE VILLA
