The leadership of the House of Representatives is not sure of the whereabouts of former Ako Bicol party-list congressman Zaldy Co, Speaker Faustino Dy III said yesterday.
Immediately after receiving Co’s letter of resignation on Sept. 29, Dy contacted former justice secretary and now Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla for the cancellation of Co’s passport, amid an investigation into alleged irregularities in public works projects linked to the former lawmaker.
The Speaker explained that while the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is the authority that formally cancels passports, the House sought the assistance of the DOJ because it oversees the Bureau of Immigration and can help expedite the coordination process.
But the DFA clarified yesterday it cannot cancel Co’s passport without a court order.
DFA spokesperson Angelica Escalona said such court order should also specifically direct the cancellation of the person’s passport.
‘In accordance with the New Philippine Passport Act, the Department of Foreign Affairs may cancel a Philippine passport only upon the issuance of a court order when the holder is a fugitive from justice or convicted of a criminal offense,’ she explained.
Escalona told The STAR that a passport, in general, may also be cancelled ‘when there is proof that a passport was acquired fraudulently, tampered with or issued erroneously.’
The DFA issued a similar statement earlier in May in relation to calls to cancel the passport of former presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
Former Senate president Franklin Drilon said Co would become an ‘undocumented alien’ in any foreign country if his passport is cancelled and allow the Philippines to request the Interpol for his return.
Dy said Remulla had assured him that the DOJ would take the fastest possible course of action.
Co, in his last letter to the House before resigning, stated he was leaving the country for medical treatment in the United States.
‘There are many who are saying that they are seeing him in many places, but the letter that we received from him before he resigned is. he will undergo medical treatment. That is what he applied for in his travel clearance, that his destination is to America,’ Dy said.
However, the Speaker acknowledged receiving reports that Co might now be in Europe. There are posts on social media allegedly showing him with bodyguards in Spain.
If Co returns to the Philippines, voluntarily or otherwise, Dy said the case would likely be handled by the DOJ or the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, which is leading the investigation into alleged irregularities in public works and flood-control projects.