Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson expressed his intent to have Co and Bernardo confront each other over their information on the alleged P100 billion budget insertion in the 2025 national budget.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson is looking forward to a face-off among captured fugitive Zaldy Co, state witness former public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, and the alleged former soldiers who claimed acting on Co’s orders to deliver billions of pesos in kickbacks to administration officials, including President Marcos.
In an interview over dwIZ, Lacson expressed his intent to have Co and Bernardo confront each other over their information on the alleged P100 billion budget insertion in the 2025 national budget, which supposedly became a source of flood control commissions.
After Co released a social media video alleging that the President received P25 billion in kickbacks, Lacson disclosed that Bernardo reached out to say he possessed the same project list but had noticed inconsistencies in Co’s claims.
According to Lacson, Bernardo has personal knowledge of the P100 billion insertion. He explained that P81 billion was allocated for public works projects, of which P52 billion Bernardo allegedly “personally handled” to facilitate kickbacks.
The remaining P29 billion was supposedly handled by former public works secretary Manuel Bonoan and former education undersecretary Trygve Olaivar.
He added that Bernardo allegedly personally delivered P8 billion in kickbacks to Olaivar.
“These are not yet in the Blue Ribbon records. Once Bernardo and Co testify when the investigation resumes, they can confront each other with their claims about the same list of projects,” Lacson said.
The senator also cast doubt on the P805 billion kickback delivery scheme attributed to the “18 ex-Marines,” pointing to the logistical challenge of transporting 805 metric tons of cash in over 13,000 suitcases.
He further questioned the credibility of Orly Guteza, the first Marine who testified before the Blue Ribbon Committee, noting his disappearance after claiming he delivered billions in kickbacks to Co and the President’s cousin, former speaker Martin Romualdez.
Lacson noted that the alleged former soldiers have been invited to the planned confrontation so the committee and the public can determine who is telling the truth.
“If we piece together the information, we will know who is lying,” Lacson said.
Different story
Signing the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s partial report on the multi-billion-peso flood control anomaly is “a different story” for Sen. JV Ejercito, who argued that hearings must resume to allow Co to testify.
Ejercito said he is banking on Co’s testimony to expose the true “architects” of the alleged flood control scam, but the proceedings remain stalled as the committee awaits the signatures required for the report.
His position challenges Lacson, who chairs the committee and has suspended hearings until the partial report secures the nine signatures needed for it to reach the Senate.
Asked if he is ready to sign the report to resume hearings, Ejercito said he prefers to wait for Co.
“That may be a different story. Once Zaldy Co is here, I think the Blue Ribbon committee hearings should be resumed even if the partial committee report is not yet complete, because as I said, many are still unsatisfied and are asking: who is the real culprit? That is the question we need answered,” he said in Filipino.
Ejercito said the current draft of the partial report is lacking, as it fails to directly identify the real culprits, particularly the so-called “cong-tractors,” or lawmakers who also operated as government contractors.
He welcomed Co’s impending return, describing him as among the key figures behind what he called “the biggest corruption scheme in our history.”
“Definitely, because we all know that Zaldy Co is one of the principal architects, along with Usec Bernardo, who designed the scheme and others involved in the flood control scandal,” said Ejercito.
He added that the practice of selling projects became widespread in the House of Representatives as many lawmakers controlled the budget while allegedly running construction firms.
“You won’t hear of anything like that happening in the Senate. It only became rampant in the recent Congresses. I was also in Congress before and there was nothing like that. But when ‘cong-tractors’ like Zaldy Co increased—he was appropriations chair and at the same time a contractor—that’s when it started,” he explained.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III has reportedly encouraged majority bloc senators to sign the report, with the option to introduce amendments or dissenting opinions later on the Senate floor.
There are also reports that a former majority member, now aligned with the minority, has been urging senators to withhold their signatures.
Ejercito dismissed claims that his position was influenced by the minority, stressing that each senator is a “republic of its own.” – With an additional report from Neil Jayson Servallos
