MANILA, Philippines – Zaldy Co finally broke his silence after months of being dragged into the flood control scandal by linking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to a hundred billion pesos in budget insertions at the bicameral conference committee.
Co is indeed one of the people most knowledgeable about the budget fiasco. Numerous personalities — Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, Roberto Bernardo, and Orly Guteza — have name-dropped him.
But is he really the reluctant accomplice he claims to be?
Prior to entering elective office, he built Sunwest, a preferred Department of Public Works and Highways contractor, and whose fortunes soared higher when he became House appropriations chairman in 2022.
Budget experts believe he remains a beneficial owner despite his divestment.
Aside from its home region Bicol, Sunwest got billions of pesos in contracts in Eastern Visayas, particularly Leyte, the bailiwick of his once-ally Martin Romualdez.
Even the business of Hi-Tone, the company founded by his brother, flourished during Co’s time as congressman.
He was removed — although he claimed he resigned — as appropriations chairman in January 2025, only weeks after Marcos vetoed P194 billion in projects in the 2025 national budget, which critics described as heavily mangled.
Co has been in and out of the country since then. He still campaigned in-person for Ako Bicol in the 2025 elections, but he said he had gone out of the country sometime in July, before the State of the Nation...
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