(UPDATE) NAVOTAS Rep. Toby Tiangco has urged Congress to conduct a public hearing in aid of legislation to speed up the serving of an arrest warrant against Zaldy Co, the fugitive ex-congressman at the center of the flood control bribery scandal.
The anti-graft court, the Sandiganbayan, has issued three arrest warrants against Co, but he remains at large outside the country.
In a statement on Saturday, Tiangco said he filed House Resolution 808, which urges the House leadership to convene the Committee of the Whole to conduct a public inquiry in aid of legislation regarding the status of the arrest warrant against Co and to recommend legislative measures, if necessary.
Tiangco questioned whether the authorities are still looking for Co, with many asking if there is “no sense of urgency” to find and hold him accountable.
He further said there is a need for “clear-cut guidelines” for enforcing arrest warrants when a subject is outside Philippine jurisdiction, citing the conflicting positions of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in implementing Co’s warrant of arrest.
“DILG earlier said DFA is the agency primarily responsible for ensuring that Co will be successfully prosecuted before our court. The DFA, however, clarified that the enforcement of legal processes against Co involves a ‘whole-of-government approach.’ Whose agency should be responsible for cases such as this?” Tiangco said.
Tiangco also stressed the need to determine whether legislative gaps allow individuals with substantial resources to evade legal processes and hide in foreign jurisdictions with which our country has no extradition treaty.
“There appears to be a compelling need to determine whether existing laws sufficiently define institutional cooperation and accountability on the service and execution of warrants and bringing before our jurisdiction politically exposed persons who leave Philippine territory,” Tiangco said.
He said the inability to immediately enforce an arrest warrant against a high-profile individual allegedly hiding abroad raises serious questions about which government agency bears responsibility for the execution of the warrant, coordination with foreign jurisdictions, and engagement with international law-enforcement agencies.
Officials from the Department of Justice (DOJ); the secretary of DILG; the secretary of DFA; the head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI); the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP); the head of the Bureau of Immigration; and the ambassador of Portugal to the Philippines will be invited to the hearing.
“Given the magnitude of the alleged flood control anomalies, there is a compelling need for the cooperation and active involvement of multiple agencies to effect legal process against fugitives from justice,” Tiangco said.
Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan’s Sixth Division has denied Co’s motion for reconsideration to nullify his declaration as a “fugitive from justice.”
In a decision written by division chairman Associate Justice Sarah Jane Fernandez and released on March 5, the court denied Co’s motion for being filed beyond the reglementary period, noting that his motion should have been filed within a non-extendible period of five calendar days.
Co, in his motion, received his copy of the resolution on Feb. 3, meaning he only had until Feb. 9 to file his motion, but he filed it on Feb. 18, which is beyond the five-day period.
Even if he filed the motion within the reglementary period, the court said it would still deny Co’s petition for lack of merit, stating that there is nothing in his motion that would warrant the reversal of the resolution.
Aside from Fernandez, the other justices who concurred in the resolution were Associate Justices Kevin Narce Vivero and Lord Villanueva.
