PBBM denies Co's allegations

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday rejected former Ako Bicol Representative Zaldy Co’s allegations that he orchestrated PHP100 billion worth of insertions in the proposed 2025 national budget.

“I don’t want to even dignify what he is saying,” Marcos said in an interview in La Castellana, Negros Occidental, when asked about Co’s claim that the President had ordered the inclusion of the alleged insertions in the 2025 national budget.

His remarks came after Co released parts two and three of his tell-all video series on Facebook, accusing the President and another individual of directing the budget insertions.

In the second video, uploaded on Saturday, Co claimed that the entire PHP100 billion in alleged insertions “went to the President and the other person.”

He further alleged that Marcos received PHP25 billion as an “SOP” (standard operating procedure), adding that the money—packed in suitcases—was supposedly delivered to the President’s official residence inside the Malacañang compound.

In response, Presidential Communications Office acting Secretary Dave Gomez dismissed Co’s latest accusations as a “bunch of hearsay.”

Gomez once again urged Co to return to the Philippines and “face the music” regarding his alleged involvement in flood control anomalies.

“We may begin to sound like a broken record. What he is saying is a bunch of hearsay. He said, they said. He did not rewrite the script for the second video even though the first one went to the gutters,” Gomez said.

“We continue to issue the same challenge. Come home, sign these under oath, and face the music.”