Reacting to allegations that it was President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. himself who ‘masterminded’ the insertion of ₱100 billion worth of projects in the 2025 budget, the administration is daring the president’s one-time ally-turned-accuser, former Ako Bicol party-list representative Elizaldy ‘Zaldy’ Co, to return home and ‘face the music’.
Three top government officials—acting communications secretary Dave Gomez, budget secretary Amenah ‘Mina’ Pangandaman and Palace press officer undersecretary Clarissa ‘Claire’ Castro-Seechung—rejected ‘any insinuation’ about insertions in the national budget, taking turns in denying Co’s unwarranted revelation and sought to distance the president from the 2025 budget process.
“These wild accusations are completely without basis in fact. All the charges leveled against the President are pure hearsay,” Gomez pointed out.
“Rep Zaldy Go should come back to the country and sign everything he said under oath with the proper judicial authorities,” he added.
Midday on Friday, November 14, Co released a video, claiming that Pangandaman had called him at the start of the bicameral conference committee deliberations for the 2025 budget in late 2024 to supposedly tell him that the chief executive had orders to insert some ₱100 billion worth of government projects in the following year’s national budget.
The former sectoral congressman, thus far, has been the first and only person to implicate the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. (FM)’s son in the embezzlement of public funds from projects through the budget process.
Although Pangandaman did not directly address Co’s allegations or narration of sequence of events she insisted that the executive has no role in the bicameral’ s budget deliberations or when the two chambers of Congress reconcile any differences in the budgets they approved.
“All appropriations ordered by the President are already in the National Expenditure Program (NEP). That is why it is called the President’s Budget. So we reject any insinuations about it. The bicam is purely under the power of the legislature. We respect and strictly follow the budget process and all our actions are above board,” she explained.
Co also accused his close ally and friend, presidential cousin and former House speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, of having a hand in the alleged insertion of projects.
Castro retorted to this by turning her guns onto Co and accused the beleaguered former lawmaker of acting out of desperation: “Dahil lumiliit na ang mundo ni Zaldy Co, kailangan niyang umiwas at iiwas ang sarili at mag namedrop kahit walang katibayan at laway lang ang puhunan.”
The Palace spokesperson added that in a bid to save himself from charges of corruption and to make it seem like he is the victim, Co is weaving lies against other people.
Interviews, however, among observers over the pros and cons issued by the opposing sides have shown that majority of the public favoring the administration and some even condemned Co for suggesting that Marcos Jr. is the orchestrator hidden behind the budget insertions that funded anomalous infrastructure projects.
A lawyer, who requested anonymity, declared the former legislators insinuation as a blatant lie as he quoted from Biblical verse the ninth Mosaic law of not bearing false witness against another person.
The San Beda law graduate stressed that if any of Co’s allegations were really true, then he should return to the Philippines and back his accusations against the president with hard evidence that would prove he is telling the truth.
“Pinapalabas niya na napilitan siya (Co) dahil utos daw ng Malacañang, o ni Pangulong Marcos (Jr.), iyong insertion, pero tsismis lang ito dahil sa ganitong paraan pinalilitaw niya na siya ang biktima upang malihis ang tunay na mga pangyayari na siya talaga ang mastermind ng lahat,” he stressed.