Atty. Salvador Panelo, legal counsel to former President Rodrigo Duterte, said President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. can no longer avoid responsibility for alleged anomalies in flood control projects following former Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Zaldy Co’s claim that Marcos orchestrated the insertion of ₱100 billion in the 2025 national budget.
“It’s game over for the present political power holders,” Panelo said.
“It appears now from the confession of Zaldy Co, that my analysis on his participation and accountability has been validated as he is irreversibly being pointed as the brains behind those insertions,” he added.
Panelo said Co, then House Committee on Appropriations chair, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez merely followed Marcos’ instructions.
He stressed that Marcos’ alleged actions, if proven with evidence, documents, and testimony, would constitute a betrayal of public trust and an impeachable offense under the 1987 Constitution.
“His cohort, members of Congress, DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) officials and the contractors who benefited from this corruption should all be prosecuted, and after due process, must be clamped to jail,” Panelo said.
He added, “His innocent and outrage innocent posturing and launching of investigation of the unprecedented anomalies were all pretense and a cover-up of his wrong doing.”
Co, who has yet to return to the Philippines, accused Marcos and Romualdez of orchestrating the ₱100 billion insertions, while Marcos stated Romualdez would answer any accusations “if something comes out against him.”
Panelo also noted that the Iglesia ni Cristo’s three-day rally from November 16 to 18 at the Quirino Grandstand would “dictate the course of history that our country will take.”