As multiple witnesses accused him of being a principal player in budget insertions and flood control anomalies, Elizaldy Co resigned from Congress yesterday.
All is not lost for his Ako Bicol party list, which will get to have someone else fill the seat he vacated in the House of Representatives.
Resignation was Co’s response to the order from new Speaker Faustino Dy III, to return to the Philippines by Sept. 29. Yesterday’s deadline lapsed with Co still a no-show, still maintaining his innocence, claiming threats to his safety and that of his family and decrying that he has been deprived of due process.
Dy said the resignation spared Co from facing the House ethics committee and likely expulsion from the chamber.
Now without government responsibilities, Co can focus on addressing the serious allegations against him, hurled at congressional hearings and before the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.
The ICI released yesterday its first major report on the flood control mess, recommending to the Office of the Ombudsman the filing of criminal and administrative complaints where applicable against Co, 12 officials and personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways along with five officials of Sunwest Inc., the construction firm founded by Co that bagged a P289.5-million flood control project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.
Among the preliminary findings of the ICI was that ‘grossly substandard’ materials were used in the construction of a road dike along the Mag-asawang Tubig River in Naujan.
The ICI found ‘reasonable ground’ to recommend pursuing charges of graft, malversation, falsification of public documents and violations of the procurement law against Co and the others, apart from administrative cases.
If Co truly wants due process, the best way to get it is to come home and face the accusations against him. He has not adequately explained the reason for his absence since the joint opening of the current 20th Congress. He won’t even disclose where he is exactly, prompting the government to request the Interpol to monitor his movements under a blue notice.
Even with his resignation, Co has a responsibility to explain to the people what happened during the House deliberations on the 2024 and 2025 General Appropriations Act, when he chaired the appropriations committee.
His refusal to return home is tarnishing even his Ako Bicol party list, and inevitably former House speaker Martin Romualdez. Co’s prolonged stay outside the country is being seen as flight, which is usually associated with guilt.