In the second installment of a video series posted on his social media page, former Ako Bicol Partylist Representative Elizaldy Co, who is in hiding overseas, accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of “receiving” a P25-billion share of the P100-billion worth of alleged insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Part two of Co’s revelation video showed digital shots of nearly 300 suitcases he claimed were stuffed with cash that were delivered to the President at Malacañang and to former speaker Martin Romualdez’s residences in Forbes Park from January 2024 to May of this year.

Captions on the pictures of the deliveries made on 2 October 2024 gave the most significant chunk of cash at P1 billion, while other photos of suitcases lacked details.

Marcos was quick to debunk Co’s kickback accusation, while Romualdez dismissed the imputation as mere accusations that “will not hold water in a court of law.”

“My conscience remains clear. Throughout this inquiry, no public official, contractor, or witness has pointed to any wrongdoing on my part. I do not wish to comment on the recent statements and allegations made by former Representative Zaldy Co because these were not made under oath,” Romualdez said.

He said he would leave it to the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman to evaluate all the statements fairly and strictly on the basis of evidence.

According to Co, the cash represented the “SOP,” or standard operating procedure, from the recent budgets, including the P100 billion in insertions in the 2025 GAA allegedly demanded by the President.

Co’s statement was a turnaround from his previous pronouncement in which he belied whistleblower Orly Guteza’s testimony given in a Senate hearing on the flood control mess in September.

Guteza, Co’s alleged former security aide, told the Senate panel that he regularly delivered “basura” or suitcases purportedly filled with cash from flood control kickbacks, containing P48 million in each bag, to the residences of Co and Romualdez in Valle Verde 6, Pasig City, and Forbes Park, Makati, respectively.

‘Nothing for me’

The embattled former party-list legislator admitted his staff transported the money but claimed he never received any kickbacks from budget insertions and that everything went straight to Marcos and Romualdez.

“I only did what was instructed to me… I didn’t receive any money. All the insertions went to our President and speaker Martin Romualdez,” Co said in Filipino.

“It’s true that Orly Guteza delivered [the money] at Forbes Park. It’s also true what Orly Guteza said in the Senate, that he made deliveries at Malacañang,” he added.

Co’s bombshell revelation followed months of hiding abroad after being implicated in the large-scale corruption scheme in the flood control projects — the biggest scandal to rock the Marcos administration.

Co chaired the powerful House committee on appropriations in the 19th Congress, but resigned shortly after the 2025 GAA was enacted, citing medical concerns.

According to Co, everything in the budget, including the massive cuts to relevant agencies’ funding, would not have materialized without Marcos’s blessing.

As chairman of the appropriations panel, he said he consulted Romualdez regarding Marcos’s demand, but was told, “We can’t do anything about that.”

“That’s why I’m puzzled why the President says he can’t recognize the budget, when all the cuts and additions to the government agencies required his approval,” Co said.

Co and ex-Senate president Francis “Chiz” Escudero both face accusations of “masterminding” the alleged insertion of billions of pesos in the 2025 GAA, with the latter reportedly sidelining then senator Grace Poe, the chairperson of the Senate committee on finance.

This year’s budget was heavily criticized for allegedly featuring bloated unprogrammed appropriations (UA), which bankroll flood control projects, while subsidies for key sectors like education and healthcare suffered deep cuts.

The UA, derided by critics as a conduit for corruption, has reportedly amounted to almost P2 trillion since 2023, Marcos’ first full year in office.

Probe PBBM, Romualdez

Co asserted that his revelations against the President and the former House speaker warrant a comprehensive investigation by the Senate, which he claimed is better equipped to probe than the Ombudsman.

While Co acknowledged that Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla has been vocal about examining the possible liability of Romualdez, he doubted he can walk the talk.

“I call on the Senate to investigate the P100 billion insertion of the President because I know that Ombudsman Remulla will not heed my challenge,” he said.

Remulla responded by telling Co to return to the Philippines, make his statements under oath and subject himself to scrutiny, rather than bypassing legal channels that undermine the ongoing probe of his office.

“If the intention is to help uncover the truth, then let us pursue it in the manner that leads to real and enforceable accountability — not through spectacle, but through the rules that govern us all,” Remulla said.

Nevertheless, the Ombudsman pledged to protect Co, who reportedly remains in the United States despite facing subpoenas, citing threats to his security.

Co secured one of the seats won by the Ako Bicol Partylist in the current 20th Congress, but resigned in late September following an ultimatum from new Speaker Faustino Dy to return to the Philippines to face the mounting allegations in connection with the flood control projects.

Escudero, Romualdez and Co are among the members of Congress accused of receiving kickbacks from private contractors that bagged billions in government contracts for flood control projects since 2022. They have all denied the allegations.

Escudero and Co are also on the list of lawmakers facing corruption charges, while authorities are still determining the evidence linking Romualdez to the flood control fiasco.

A review of the list of flood control projects on the “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website showed that Sunwest Inc. cornered 79 projects worth over P10 billion from 7 July 2022 to May this year.

The Albay-based Sunwest, formerly Sunwest Construction and Development Corporation, was established in 1997 and was co-founded by Co.

The Bicolano lawmaker claimed he had long divested from the construction firm when he entered Congress in 2019, but official documents showed otherwise.

Earlier, Marcos tagged Sunwest among the top 15 contractors that bagged P100 billion in flood control projects.