Speaker Dy to Co: Return to PH, face the probes
Newly elected Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III has ordered Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co to return to the country within 10 days to answer allegations linking him to questionable budget insertions and anomalous public works projects.
In a notice signed Sept. 18 and released to reporters on Friday, Dy notified Co that his travel clearance to seek medical treatment in the United States had been revoked effective immediately “in the paramount interest of the public and due to the existence of pressing national matters requiring your presence.”
Failure to comply with the directive, Dy warned, could result in the initiation of appropriate disciplinary and legal actions.
Even before Dy’s directive was issued, House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, son of President Marcos, had urged Co to come home and face the issues that had been “dragging the House into the mud.”
Co, the House appropriations committee chair in the 19th Congress from 2022 until June 30 this year, is accused of maneuvering the last-minute realignments and budget insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) that led to the significant increase in the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) budget.
The company that Co had cofounded, Sunwest Inc., was also identified by President Marcos as among the Top 15 contractors that cornered the bulk of flood control projects in the country from July 2022 to May 2025.
Data from the Sumbong sa Pangulo website showed that Sunwest bagged more than P10 billion worth of government flood control projects, while Hi-Tone Construction and Development Corp, founded by his brother and former Ako Bicol Rep. Christopher “Kito” Co, likewise got P4.8 billion worth of contracts in the same period.
An Inquirer review of the dataset published on Malacañang’s “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website showed that the Albay-based firm had 79 projects totaling P10,147,835,285.70 from 2022 to 2024.
Eighteen of these were in Romblon, 11 in Leyte, and 10 in Camarines Sur and Oriental Mindoro.
Co said in previous interviews that he had already divested himself from the company, now led by Aderma Angelie Alcazar.
Recent inspections both by Mr. Marcos and newly appointed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon revealed that many of their projects, particularly in Oriental Mindoro, were either nonexistent or substandard.
Last month, lawyer Princess Abante, the House spokesperson, said that Co had sought clearance from the Office of the Secretary General to travel to the United States to seek medical treatment. He has not attended any session since the 20th Congress convened in July.
House Majority Leader Marcos warned that Co’s continued absence could trigger the initiation of an ethics complaint similar to the one filed against former Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves during the 19th Congress.
Teves was eventually expelled from the House for his prolonged and continued absence while he was seeking political asylum in Timor-Leste to avoid prosecution over his alleged involvement in the 2023 murder of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo.
First act
This is Dy’s first act in office since he was elected unopposed as leader of the 315-member House of Representatives on Wednesday to replace Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who resigned this week in an effort to stop the erosion of the chamber’s credibility following allegations linking him and other lawmakers to questionable public works projects
The Inquirer on Friday sought Dy’s office and asked whether the notice from the Speaker could force Co to come home even without a formal summons, but was told that the House leader would answer “in due time.”
Reporters, including the Inquirer, also tried to seek Co’s comment but did not get a response as of Friday night.
A cousin of Mr. Marcos, Romualdez finally stepped down on Wednesday supposedly to allow the investigation of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to proceed unhampered should he and Co be implicated.
“The longer I stay, the heavier that burden grows—on me, on this House, and on the President I have always sought to support. And so, after deep reflection and prayer, I have made a decision. Today, with a full heart and a clear conscience, I tender my resignation as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Romualdez said, addressing his fellow lawmakers.
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Deputy Speaker and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin implied that Romualdez had been trying to get Co to come home to answer the issues being thrown at him to no avail, and that this was one of the reasons he finally decided to resign.
“As far as I know, even during the 19th Congress, [Co] kept flying to Singapore for some diagnostic or [medical] workup … but what I am definitely sure is that the Speaker (Romualdez) was trying to reach out to him to request him and to allow him to mention a timetable on when he could return,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Makabayan bloc on Friday called for the immediate and full disclosure of all infrastructure projects funded through unprogrammed appropriations after Sen. Panfilo Lacson revealed that he had found P600 million worth of flood control projects under that budget line in the 2023 budget.
This was the exact amount that Sen. Joel Villanueva had supposedly maneuvered to have included in that year’s budget, according to whistleblower and former Bulacan assistant district engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez. Lacson also found P355 million worth of projects inserted in the DPWH Bulacan budget in the 2025 national budget—also the same amount that Hernandez had linked to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.
Both Villanueva and Estrada had denied Hernandez’s allegations that they had a hand in these budget insertions or fund misuse.
In a joint statement, ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio, Kabataan Rep. Renee Louise Co and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago said Lacson’s revelation “confirms what we have long exposed—that unprogrammed funds serve as the President’s personal pork barrel system.”
Unprogrammed funds are standby appropriations that legislators want included in the GAA but which are not supported by a specific source of financing at the time that the GAA is approved. This is in contrast with programmed appropriations which have definite sources of funding and could be implemented readily. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
