Maleta recordings yielded to court

Photos and videos of maletas, or suitcases, allegedly delivered to the home of former Speaker Martin Romualdez were entered as evidence in the lawmaker’s ongoing bail hearing in the plunder case.

George Villalon Jr., an alleged bagman of former Congressman Zaldy Co, took the witness stand at the Sandiganbayan Third Division’s proceedings to testify on a delivery that he participated in to Romualdez’s Forbes Park residence.

Before the court, lawyers for the Leyte lawmaker opposed the presentation of a video Villalon took, arguing that they were only provided a still from a 13-second video the witness sent to the former House leader’s wife.

The anti-graft court, however, allowed the presentation, noting that the defense lawyers would have the opportunity to cross-examine the alleged bagman to authenticate the video.

The short clip showed various suitcases lined up inside what Villalon said was the home of the former House Speaker and also captured in the video were two other personnel of Co.

Video supplied to wife

Villalon told the court that the video, along with other photos, were taken on 21 November 2023 and were shared through Facebook Messenger on the same date.

When asked by the Third Division’s chairperson, Associate Justice Karl Miranda, why he took the video, the witness said he did so to update his wife, who repeatedly called him during the delivery.

Villalon would also tell the court that the phone that he used to capture the video was already lost and that the only copy he had of the video was from the messages that he had with his wife, which was later downloaded to a laptop and transferred to a flash drive.

In one of Villalon’s messages to his wife, he stated that the suitcases he had photographed contained cash intended for Romualdez.

The prosecution entered a screen grab of the actual exchange as evidence, while the lawyers for the former House Speaker insisted on refraining from stipulating to the evidence’s authenticity.

Villalon served as the prosecution’s first witness in the plunder case against Romualdez over alleged infrastructure kickbacks amounting to P7.4 billion.

Aside from the former Speaker, the case also implicated Co, a member of Romualdez’s staff, and a president of a money exchange company, who were also tagged as co-conspirators in the crime.