FROM ALL INDICATIONS, Ako Bicol partylist Congressman Zaldy Co is not keen on the idea of flying back home after topping the list of government officials being dragged into the trillion-peso flood control scandal.
Coinciding with the expiration of the deadline set by the House of Representatives for his return, Co, whom reports claim to be somewhere in Spain, submitted a letter of “irrevocable resignation” to House Speaker Faustino Dy III.
According to Co, he tendered his resignation amid “real, direct, grave and imminent to the lives of my family and me, and the evident denial of my right to due process of law.”
BLUE NOTICE
Previously, Secretary Crispin Remulla of the Department Justice admitted that the government is already coordinating with the International Police Organization (Interpol) for the issuance of a Blue Notice against the partylist congressman.
Interpol notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.
In Co’s case, the DOJ requested a Blue Notice, an investigative tool that neither requires member states to make an arrest.
A notable blue notice Interpol example could be a case involving persons of interest in cases such as fraud, corruption, money laundering, or other financial crimes that often span multiple jurisdictions.
HUGE KICKBACKS
During congressional inquiries conducted by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, resource persons tagged Co behind multiple issues, including budget insertions, ghost (and substandard) projects, and kickbacks delivered in multiple suitcases.
However, Co insisted that allegations against him are all politically fabricated.
In his three-page resignation letter, Co told Dy that he would answer all the “malicious and baseless claims against him” particularly by Rep. Tobias Tiangco before the House ethics committee.
He cited as reason for resigning the “real, direct, grave and imminent to the lives of my family and me, and the evident denial of my right to due process of law.”
DRAGGING CONGRESS
According to the “resigned” partylist congressman, he’s neither the mastermind, nor part of what Tiangco referred to as a well-entrenched syndicate in Congress.
He likewise quelled allegations of last minute insertions and realignments in the General Appropriations Act during his stint as chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Co said it was “improbable, if not absolutely impossible that I on my own could enter supposed insertions without the knowledge of both Chambers of Congress, which was evidently signed into law by the President.”
“The validity of the 2025 GAA is subject of a Supreme Court proceeding and a case before the Office of the Ombudsman,” he explained.
FLAUNTING WEALTH
He also denied “indulging in extravagant and ostentatious display of wealth in the eye of the public.”
However, screenshots and URL links proved otherwise as no less than her niece, a lifestyle vlogger, flaunted the extravagant lifestyle and wealth of the Co family.
Eventually the Department of Transportation (DOTr) was able to act on the air assets acquired by Co, which had been used for the jetsetting of the family to different parts of the world. These air assets, the DOTr added, were used by the Co family and limited “circle of friends and business associates” in visiting a private island that he owns.
He also debunked the need for submitting a medical certificate when applying for a leave of absence, which he had been practicing since 2024 for medical check ups abroad.
“As in the past, my leaves and travel orders have been approved by the House of Representatives without the need for a medical certificate,” he said, adding that even without his physical presence, he had been doing public service remotely.