Resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co denied having received a single centavo from the alleged P100 billion insertions in the 2025 budget – a claim that a former Justice secretary and House leader said was “unbelievable.”
“No money went to me. All the insertions went to the President and to Speaker Martin Romualdez,” Co said in his second video released yesterday where he showed photos of suitcases which he claimed contained cash.
House deputy minority leader and Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima, for her part, said Co’s claim of not benefitting from the budget insertions and the flood control mess was impossible and illogical.
“It is simply unbelievable,” De Lima said.
“At any rate, we reiterate our call for former Rep. Zaldy Co to return to the country, face the allegations against him, and present the whole truth before the appropriate forum… Because no matter how many parts his videos reach, his statements and presented evidence cannot be used in court if he does not swear in the proper forum,” she added.
Co earlier asked Blue Ribbon chairman Senator Panfilo Lacson to review first the alleged insertions in the 2025 budget.
“I respectfully urge Senator Lacson to first review the full list of alleged insertions made under the directive of President Marcos and clearly reflected in the 2025 GAA,” Co said.
“You may cross-check the 2025 NEP to verify if the same line items appear there…I suggest that before making statements that may unfairly prejudice the issue, the Senator should examine the documents in full,” he added.
Lacson, however, reiterated that Co’s claims lacked evidentiary value as he was not sworn in when he made the allegations and shared them on social media.
“Ex-Rep. Zaldy Co needs to have his written affidavit properly authenticated by a consul in the place where he is presently located, then testify under oath before the Blue Ribbon Committee while within the premises of the embassy or consulate in order to make his testimony valid and have probative value. Under such conditions, we will resume the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing and hear his testimony,” Lacson said.
“Otherwise, as I have stated earlier, no matter how many parts or episodes his narrations are, they will all remain as such—narrations,” he added.
Lacson said he and his staff are already reviewing the supposed P100 billion worth of projects that Co claimed were inserted in the bicameral conference committee.
He acknowledged that some items “are confirmed to be existing.”
The senator, however, questioned the dates of the supposed cash deliveries that Co claimed were done in 2024.
“What I noticed in the video, however, is that while he talks of the 2025 GAA, several dates of the supposed deliveries were done in 2024, which obviously contradicts his narration about the insertions in the 2025 GAA,” Lacson said.
He said it made no sense that the President would make insertions at the bicameral conference committee level when he could have done it at the National Expenditure Program over which he has full control of.
“The President is not part of the bicam. He could have had the amount inserted in the NEP. And assuming it is true he ordered the insertion, why did he veto it?” Lacson added.
The President reduced the 2025 national budget from P6.352 trillion to P6.326 trillion following the veto of P194 billion worth of line items deemed inconsistent with the administration’s priority programs.
Of the P194 billion slashed from the 2025 budget, President Marcos vetoed P26.065 billion worth of projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways and P168.240 billion allocated under “Unprogrammed Appropriations.”
