18 ex-bodyguards willing to submit individual affidavits, says Baligod

The 18 former bodyguards of former congressman Zaldy Co who alleged that they delivered suitcases of kickbacks from flood control projects to several lawmakers are willing to submit individual affidavits, their lawyer Levi Baligod said.

Baligod was at the Ombudsman on Thursday to accompany one of the former bodyguards, Johnny Buduan, who was summoned by the Ombudsman in its fact-finding investigation.

Baligod’s statement follows the pronouncement by Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla that the 18 should submit individual affidavits as opposed to a joint affidavit if their allegations were to be of any value.

“They should all issue individual affidavits,” Remulla said Monday.

Prior to this, in investigations like the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s, testimonies from the former bodyguards were referenced from a joint affidavit inviting criticisms of coaching and targeting particular individuals.

“This is the correct process. ‘Yung hinihingi ni Ombudsman noon na dapat mag-prepare kami ng individual affidavits, ‘yan talaga ang process in front of the investigators,” Baligod said.

(What the Ombudsman is asking, that we should prepare individual affidavits, that is really the process in front of the investigators.)

In today’s investigation, Buduan testified to personally delivering some 20 suitcases once to one congressman which he declined to name in his house on November 21, 2023.

“Isa lang po ‘yung actual na napag-deliveran ko,” Buduan told reporters after the investigation.

(I had actually only delivered to one.)

He added that he personally brought the suitcases, with post-its that indicated amounts like P40 million and P50 million, and were delivered one time.

Buduan will return again to the Ombudsman to continue his testimony.

Four other former bodyguards were invited next week, according to Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano but Baligod said all the 18 would appear individually or by twos in succeeding investigations.

When asked if the these testimonies could produce possible cases for filing at the courts, Clavano said it was too early too tell.

“Let’s allow the investigators to gather as much information as they can before making any conclusions. There are teams on the different persons under investigation. So, they will all ask questions relative to those cases,” he said. — BM, GMA News