Zaldy Co needs to return home if he'll testify on Marcos impeachment complaint —Luistro

Former Ako Bicol party-list representative Zaldy Co needs to return to the country if he will testify on one of the impeachment complaints against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., House Committee on Justice chairperson Gerville Luistro said Saturday.

“Ang nasa ilalim po ng rules ng impeachment, dapat sa Justice Committee chair panunumpaan lahat ng affidavits and counter affidavits. And that includes the giving of testimony before the Justice Committee,” Luistro said.

(Under the rules of impeachment, all affidavits and counter-affidavits must be sworn to by the Justice Committee chair.)

“Kung itong mga (If these) intended witnesses are willing to come before the Justice Committee and take their oath, of course they can testify... Lahat po ng ebidensiya (All evidence) supporting the impeachment complaint has to be sworn in before the Justice Committee,” she added.

Asked if Co has to come home if he is willing to testify, Luistro replied, “Definitely.”

According to Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla, Co is believed to be staying inside a gated community in Lisbon, Portugal amid an arrest warrant issued against him in relation to supposed anomalous flood control projects.

In November, Marcos challenged Co to come home and face accusations against him.

That's after the he accused the President and his cousin, Leyte Representative and former Speaker Martin Romualdez, as well as some Cabinet members, of orchestrating supposed "insertions" worth P100 billion in the national budget.

Malacañang previously said all the accusations against the President were pure hearsay.

Romualdez, meanwhile, said his conscience "remains clear" amid the allegations made against him.

Willing to testify

It was former partylist lawmaker Michael Defensor, one of the complainants in the third impeachment complaint, who said that Co is willing to testify.

"Noong malaman ni Zaldy Co na mag-file kami ng impeachment complaint at lalo't malaman niya na binlock, he is willing to testify to enhance the impeachment complaint we had filed. Ang sabi niya noon nga sa Senate, ay gusto na niya sa Blue Ribbon Committee. Hindi siya pinayagan. Inaasahan niya, inaasahan namin na dito sa impeachment complaint ay papayagan siya mag-testify," Defensor said on Friday.

(When Zaldy Co found out that we were going to file an impeachment complaint, and especially when he learned that it was blocked, he was willing to testify to enhance the impeachment complaint we had filed. He previously said that he wanted to testify in the Blue Ribbon Committee in the Senate. He was not allowed. He is expecting, and we are also expecting, that in this impeachment complaint he would be allowed to testify.)

When asked for details of his communication with Co, Defensor said he would divulge these at a later time.

Defensor and several former government officials attempted to file the third impeachment complaint against Marcos on Thursday, but it was not received by the Office of the Secretary General because its head, Cheloy Garafil, was abroad to receive an award.

This also happened when Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and allied groups tried to file the second impeachment complaint against the President also on Thursday.

Bayan said it is filing the impeachment complaint on the grounds of betrayal of public trust. It also accused Marcos of committing three impeachable acts including the adoption of the Baselined-Balanced-Managed (BBM) Parametric Formula in allocating infrastructure projects that allegedly led to "ghost", substandard, and overpriced flood management projects.

On January 19, lawyer Andre de Jesus filed the first impeachment complaint against the President since he assumed office on June 30, 2016. —VAL, GMA Integrated News