Bicol Congressman Elizaldy Co is toast. He will be convicted and jailed, perhaps for a long time. His name will be generic for ‘corrupt government official of the worst kind.’ ‘I-Zaldy Co mo na ‘yan’ means steal the taxpayers’ money and run.
Co knows his crime. He is a recidivist. He is now on the run, moving from one country to another, hiding from prying eyes and alert Filipinos, while wearing disguises and surrounded by hordes of bodyguards. It will take a long time before Co returns to the Philippines, if ever – unless the Interpol gets into the game.
‘Zaldy Co will be jailed,’ Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon told his audience during the MOPC Infra Night, Sept. 30 in Makati. ‘The chances of conviction are higher than 80 percent,’ he assured me.
The evidence against the Ako Bicol party-list congressman is compelling, an ‘open and shut case,’ Vince quotes the lawyer of DPWH which is seeking Co’s prosecution. Co’s companies had bagged P86.1 billion worth of DPWH contracts from 2016 to 2025, the second biggest in the country after the Discayas’ P207 billion, the No. 1 in number and amount of DPWH contracts. Most of the projects done by Co and the Discayas for DPWH are either ghost or substandard. That makes them the two biggest thieves of taxpayers’ money – P86 billion and P207 billion, respectively.
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure’s case No. 1 before the ombudsman is a case against Co, Vince Dizon’s first serious attempt to demand accountability from greedy contractors.
Dizon submitted to the ICI the damning evidence involving Co’s Contract No.24E00047 – the construction of a 425-meter-long road dike along Mag-Asawang Tubig River in Barangay Tagumpay, Naujan, Oriental Mindoro for P289.498 million (up from the original cost of P279 million) under the 2024 General Appropriations Act. Co’s Sunwest Inc. won the rigged bidding.
Two bidders made a bid in 2023 – Sunwest and a Discaya company. There is no record that the Discaya company indeed made a bid. The award to Co was courtesy of the notorious DPWH Mimaropa Region IV-B director Gerald A. Pacanan.
Before any DPWH contract could be awarded, the winning bidder must submit a number of documents. Co did not submit any but got the award and Notice to Proceed (NTP) just the same. Co was supposed to finish the river protection in 360 days. He claimed to have done it in much less time and collected full payment despite shoddy construction and use of substandard but overpriced materials. It won’t protect the people of Brgy. Tagumpay from floods. They clearly lost. A no win. For them and for the national government.
Says the ICI: ‘We have yet to be furnished with copies of the various documents which were supposed to have served as preconditions for the signing of the contract (i.e., performance security; construction Methods, construction schedule, Manpower schedule, equipment utilization schedule, construction safety and health program, contractor’s al-risk insurance, latest income and business tax returns, tax clearances, certification that the contractor is free and clean of all tax liabilities, integrity pledge). For now, we cannot discount the possibility that these documents may not exist at all, or were not submitted in accordance with prevailing laws and regulations.’
What Co did with the Brgy. Tagumpay project and similar projects in Naujan will make you puke in anger and disbelief. The steel sheet piles for the project should have been 12 meters. Co’s company installed only three meters or just 25 percent, giving Sunwest an implied profit of 75 percent. In addition, the installed sheet pile was found to be substandard or below spec.
Only 22 days after the Notice to Proceed on March 14, 2024, Co claimed 25 percent completion. DPWH promptly paid P58.672 million with the gall to claim ‘Phase IV under contract with Sunwest, Inc. have been accomplished consistent with the plans and specifications, and inspected with due consideration on the quality of workmanship.’ The certification was signed by seven DPWH Mimaropa officials led by Pacanan.
Protests the ICI: ‘Certifications aside, the discovery of the apparent substandard steel sheet piles likewise casts grave doubt as to whether all supporting documents for the first progress billing were duly submitted. Moreover, the geotagged progress photos can hardly justify or accurately depict the actual progress of the works.’
Co’s Sunwest submitted only two photographs – a dimly lit photograph of steel sheet piles and a photograph of workers supposedly engaged in ‘clearing and grubbing’ to prove 25 percent ‘progress.’
Says ICI: ‘There are no other photographs submitted to demonstrate a purported 25.03 percent work accomplishment, a mere 22 days after the Notice to Proceed was issued. Making the said progress photos all the more anomalous or suspect is that they were the very same photographs used in support of Progress Billing No. 2.’
Adds ICI: ‘On 25 June 2024, and in support of Progress Billing No. 2, Monthly Certificate of Payment No. 24062068 was issued for the period 16 March 2024 to 15 May 2024 (or a period of 60 days), in the amount of P35,134,206.86. This Certificate of Payment was supported by a Contractor’s Statement of Work Accomplished for the same period, which indicated a supposed completion rate of 40.0225 percent. The very same progress photographs in support of Progress Billing No. 1 were used to support this second Progress Billing.’
‘And unlike Progress Billing No. 1, there appears to have been no Certificate of Inspection issued in support of Progress Billing No. 2 (at the very least, the Commission has yet to be furnished a copy). Disbursement Voucher No. 2406206822 and the corresponding LDDAP-ADA was issued in support of the second partial payment of P35,134,206.86 to Sunwest. Sunwest, in turn, issued an Official Receipt No. 0024266 dated 28 June 2024, confirming receipt of the disbursed amount.’
Co committed similar shenanigans and stole our money.