Co wants to overthrow administration - Rep. Marcos

With his allegations that were “as fantastical as they are false,” fugitive congressman Zaldy Co was trying to destabilize the government ina bid to escape punishment for his crimes, House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos said yesterday.

- By JOSE RODEL CLAPANO

In his latest video posted on his social media page, Co claimed the young Marcos orchestrated budget insertions amounting to P9.636 billion in 2023, P20.174 billion in 2024 and P21.127 billion in 2025.

“Anyone can sit in front of a camera from abroad and spew lies,” Marcos said, describing his former colleague as “the newly crowned champion of the DDS cabal.”

He said Co’s allegations were meant to foment unrest among Filipinos.

“I hope that the public can be reminded that we are talking of a person with no credibility whose vested interests are to release these videos to destabilize the government. This is someone who our kababayans know to be the architect of this mess, yet continues to insult their intelligence by saying wala siyang nakuha (he didn’t get anything),” Marcos added.

The majority leader, according to Co, would always demand insertions during deliberations by the bicameral conference committee.

“All in all, the total is P50.938 billion. And each year, every time that the bicam budget process came, Congressman Sandro always has an order to insert his projects,” Co said in his video.

“1 just learned from the contractor that he was very angry at me when the 2025 GAA budget is being discussed. According to them, he said he will have me removed and he will file many cases against me because the insertion that he wants was short of P8 billion,” Co said.

“The reason, according to him, was there were contractors who got an advance from him and since the entire amount was not inserted, he has to return those,” Co added.

Marcos said Co was apparently resorting to political chaos to escape his own legal troubles. “He wants to overthrow the present administration to absolve himself for his crimes,” Marcos said.

“In fact, the intel suggests he already struck a deal with those who stand to benefit from such a change,” he added.