MANILA: Malacanang on Tuesday (April 21) said the Marcos administration guarantees the safe return of former lawmaker Elizaldy 'Zaldy' Co to the Philippines, but noted that alleged threats against his life have yet to be verified.
At a briefing, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro was asked to assure Co’s safe return after Sen. JV Ejercito said the biggest challenge in bringing the former lawmaker back is ensuring his safety.
Ejercito warned that some groups may not want Co to return and testify about the flood control scandal.
“Many will be afraid once Zaldy returns, especially the ‘Congtractors’,” he said. “The challenge here is to bring him back in one piece. There might be others who do not wish that he be brought back in the country.”
Castro said that before any assurance is given, the government’s position is that all Filipinos should be safe when returning to the Philippines.
“But we should first look at where these alleged death threats are coming from. Has anything been shown? Has anything been recorded or whatever? So, I think that’s where we should start, because there’s no basis—there would be a lack of basis if you cannot prove that there are death threats against Zaldy Co.
"So, we should start there: are there death threats? Because how can you assure somebody that they won’t be harmed when they return to the Philippines if there are no death threats?” she added.
Co is one of the alleged masterminds behind the trillion-peso flood control and infrastructure anomalies in 2025.
His whereabouts have been unclear since he left the country in July 2025, supposedly for medical reasons.
Last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Co was stopped at the German border after crossing from the Czech Republic, where he was refused entry for lacking proper documents. Co was then returned to the Czech authorities, where he remains in custody.
The Department of Foreign Affairs canceled Co’s Philippine passport in December 2025 on orders of the Sandiganbayan, which had issued an arrest warrant against him in connection with a corruption case, and in compliance with Republic Act No. 8239, or the Philippine Passport Act of 1996.
The arrest warrant was intended to compel him either to return to the Philippines on his own or to be arrested by foreign authorities and deported to face cases related to the public works corruption scandal.
He is facing graft and malversation charges tied to the flood control controversy. Investigators alleged that the Naujan, Oriental Mindoro project was grossly substandard and was covered up by false certifications that allowed payments to be released to the contractor.
In November 2025, Co’s lawyer, Ruy Rondain, said his client has “credible and serious threats to his life.”
“He has a general fear of being shot—whether by a vigilante or a political enemy he doesn’t even know,” Rondain said. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
