Former Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Elizaldy Co should return home and cooperate with investigations into infrastructure corruption and the alleged budget mess, Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said after the ex-lawmaker broke his silence and implicated key officials.
De Lima in a statement on Friday said that Co should testify under oath, so that his statements would be used in investigations and in courts.
Co in a video statement earlier claimed that key administration officials-particularly Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Presidential Legislative Liason Office Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin-told him that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. allegedly ordered the placement of P100 million worth of insertions.
‘We urge former Rep. Zaldy Co to return to the country and fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the anomalous flood control and other infrastructure projects,’ de Lima said.
‘He should take an oath and tell the whole truth before the proper forum,’ she added.
The Makabayan bloc, composed of ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago, and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Renee Co, meanwhile, said that Marcos should explain himself and address the issues.
‘This testimony demolishes any pretense that Marcos Jr. is innocent or unaware of the corruption plaguing his administration. He is not merely complicit-he is the chief architect. The President personally approves the release of unprogrammed funds and directly orders billions in budget insertions. The buck stops with him,’ Makabayan said.
‘While we acknowledge that Zaldy Co’s testimony may be motivated by self-preservation after being made a scapegoat and charged while others enjoyed protection, this does not diminish the gravity of his revelations. The list of projects he included in his revelation should be investigated including the private contractors involved,’ they added.
According to Makabayan, Co’s revelation also confirms their suspicions that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was bloated despite the 1987 Constitution stating that the highest budget priority should be given to education.
‘The testimony reveals what we have long suspected: that the bloating of DPWH’s budget beyond even that of DepEd is not accidental but deliberate. When Zaldy Co stated that only P50 billion could realistically be inserted into programmed appropriations without making DPWH’s budget exceed DepEd (Department of Education), this was allegedly overruled by Malacañang because this was apparently already promised to the President,’ Makabayan said.
‘We note that Zaldy Co has yet to reveal Part 2 of his testimony, which allegedly involves the actual delivery of money to the residences of Marcos Jr. and Romualdez. This only deepens the imperative for a thorough and independent investigation,’ they added.
Co in the video statement said Pangandaman asked him in 2024 to confirm with Bersamin as to whether the President really ordered putting P100 billion worth of insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Bill. After getting the confirmation, Co said he told former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez about this instruction.
According to Co, he believed that the orders came from Marcos because Bersamin said that the project was placed in a brown leather bag-which he remembered to be the same bag that Marcos spoke about when he, the President, and Romualdez returned from a trip to Singapore.
Co said that Marcos ordered the Presidential Security Command (PSC) to fetch the bag when it was left, with the Chief Executive saying that everything else can be left but not the brown leather bag.
After getting these confirmations, Co said he appealed to Pangandaman and Bersamin to just put half of the P100 billion to unprogrammed funds so that funds for DPWH would not exceed the allocation for DepEd. Co also said he is surprised as to why Marcos is saying that he cannot recognize the 2025 budget.
Questions have surrounded the 2025 budget ever since the budget bill was finalized by the bicameral conference committee. In January 2025, Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab and his ally, former President Rodrigo Duterte both claimed that the budget was illegal since there were blanks in the bicam report that the House ratified.
Former Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, who was then the acting chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said that the blank items in the bicam report had exact figures already, insisting that blanks were only left for final calculations.
Quimbo also said back then that it was the Senate committee on finance’s technical staff which prepared the bicam report on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). Furthermore, Quimbo noted that the adjustments can be seen on the Senate’s committee report.
Co, meanwhile, is facing several issues regarding the 2025 national budget and the infrastructure project scandal.
At one of the Senate blue ribbon committee hearings, contractor-couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya named several lawmakers-including Co-who allegedly asked for and received kickbacks from infrastructure projects, after their firms were able to bag government contracts.
Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez, former officials of the Bulacan first district engineering office, tagged Co and other lawmakers as allegedly involved in the kickbacks scheme for infrastructure projects.
Co is also accused by Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco of mangling the 2025 budget, claiming that party-lists affiliated with Co received more than P4 billion worth of allocations from DPWH-P2.23 billion for Ako Bicol, P2.06 billion for Barangay Health Workers which is represented by her niece, former Rep. Natasha Co, and P13 billion under Elizaldy Co himself.
As early as August, Tiangco has been asking Co to reveal all the amendments made by the small committee for the 2025 budget, to show that the House leadership is truly serious about its push for reforms.