Anti-corruption groups hailed the reported arrest of a former legislator identified with the flood control mess, saying the development may finally shed more light on who masterminded the corruption scandal involving hundreds of billions.
House of Representatives (HoR) Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Rep. Antonio Tinio said former Committee on Appropriations chairperson Elizalde Co may be a key witness in future investigations in the corruption scandal rocking the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government.
Co was reportedly arrested in Europe on Thursday after attempting to enter the Czech Republic without legal travel documents. Co’s Philippine passport had earlier been revoked after refusing to return to the Philippines to face accusations of substandard or ghost flood control projects.
Marcos himself announced Co’s arrest in a social media post, announcing his government is arranging for the former fugitive’s deportation to the country.
Tinio said the former Duterte and Marcos ally’s testimony may be the basis of impeachment proceedings against the president.
“[B]y the time he (Co) is brought back and tells all, the one year bar will have expired and it will be time for another impeachment of Marcos,” Tinio said, hinting of possible initiation of removal proceedings against the Philippine president.
Tinio’s fellow Makabayan (Patriotic) bloc members at the HoR said Co’s arrest may finally reveal more facts about how corrupt government officials funded and implemented questionable public works projects.
“His return must not be reduced to a media spectacle or a convenient ending; it must be the beginning of a full public reckoning over the flood control scam and the broader system of corruption in public works and budgeting,” Makabayan said.
Co’s repatriation will make it possible for him to testify under oath on his previous revelations regarding the role of Marcos and other high officials in a corruption network that enabled massive budget insertions and anomalous infrastructure allocations, the coalition said.
The activist lawmakers, consistent impeachment endorsers against sitting Philippine presidents for alleged corruption, said Co’s revelations on video since he became a fugitive last year should not be brushed aside as mere noise, especially given the scale of public funds involved and the widespread damage caused by substandard or nonexistent flood control projects.
Incriminating role in government corruption
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said Co must face charges against him, return the money he reportedly stole, and identify his co-conspirators in the “massive and shameless systematic stealing of public funds.”
BAYAN noted that Co previously admitted his incriminating role in the delivery of billions of pesos in kickbacks to Marcos and the president’s subordinates.
The group said that instead of subjecting Marcos to impeachment probes as is being done to his now bitter rival Vice President Sara Duterte, the president’s allies “quickly and maliciously maneuvered” to dismiss the allegations and prevent all attempts aimed at investigating the corruption masterminds in government.
“This reflects the persistence of abuse of power and impunity that enabled corrupt officials like Co, Marcos, and Duterte to plunder the national treasury without being held accountable,” BAYAN said.
‘Convenient fall guy?’
Allied with the Rodrigo Duterte government when he first became a congressman in June 2019, Co would later be known as the “budget kingmaker” since becoming the appropriations committee chief in July 2022.
He is being accused of facilitating budget insertions on flood control projects that were found substandard or missing.
Co revealed while in hiding that Marcos himself accomplished the insertions upon orders of Marcos and facilitating the delivery of kickbacks to Marcos’ subordinates worth billions of pesos. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
