Where is typhoon ‘Zaldy?‘

It will be missing ex-Congressman Zaldy Co’s birthday on 8 December, Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Would this Catholic university-educated man have shown up before then, and spend the special non-working holiday dedicated to Mother Mary with his fellow Filipinos?

All are eager to hear what he has to say about the “P1.45 trillion of insertions, diversions and amendments,” as House Deputy Minority Leader Edgar Erice expostulated recently, accusing the previous Congress of a “grand conspiracy.”

A House of Enablers, these lawmakers may as well be called, and the erstwhile top honchos of both chambers must be held to account for their roles in the corruption charge spinning off those anomalous flood control projects. Of course, we can continue to trace the path of perdition all the way to the top, but who is to say if there will even be progress from here on?

Typhoon “Tino” has already rained on our parade, distracting our attention once again and “Uwan” is about to join the fray. While the resulting floodwaters will always remind us of many unanswered questions, coping with the aftermath will siphon our energies.

Typhoon “Zaldy” is much-awaited, however. Filipinos have had enough of diversions and demand an explanation from the man that has practically been tagged as the hand that chalked up the mind-boggling numbers in the national budget. Trillions, billions in cash, houses full of luggage. It sounds like fiction, but it is not, and reality — that of cities with floating cars and roads that disappear when it rains — continues to shake us out of our disbelief.

Yet Zaldy Co’s lawyer insists facts had been “skewered” and “twisted.” Co has been “pre-judged.”

Facing the press with the intention of “redirecting the narrative,” Atty. Ruy Rondain said his client does not wish to return at this time — his life is under serious threat. Not many can find it in themselves to sympathize, however, not after allegations against him have piled up without ever a peep from the man who once strode the hallways of power.

What are riches on earth when your spirit is in darkness? Atty. Rondain, once upon a time legal counsel to another much-maligned individual at a time of another great corruption scandal, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, says he has no idea where his client is. Presence and location are apparently “not relevant to his defense.” He is a ghost, as far as we know, unseen, but the controversy that hounds him is no such phantom.

Atty. Rondain may strive to sanitize our perception of Zaldy Co, who once took up the cudgels for Ako Bicol and ended up heading the House Committee on Appropriations and belonging to the strangely named “small committee” in the House of Representatives.

Until he faces up to the issue, has the courage to clear his name, the brilliant billionaire from Bicol will not be able to rest easy. It doesn’t matter if one was educated in a seminary school, or entered politics with an anti-corruption stance.

Reputation is built upon moral integrity. It is not about what you have built, but how you built it. It is not about who you know, but who you are.