Cayetano should tell Legarda to admit receiving ‘maletas’

Besieged Alan Cayetano screeches that all his critics are “pro-Marcos.” His they-or-us politics insults thinking Filipinos. He mimics Duterte Diehard Supporters’ branding of critics of their idol as “paid hacks.”

He needs straightening out about recent events:

It’s Dutertards like Cayetano who foisted Bongbong Marcos on Filipinos in 2022. With sidekick Loren Legarda, he campaigned hard for the presidential-VP ticket of BBM and Sara Duterte.

Cayetano and Legarda were in the senatorial slate of BBM-Sara’s UniTeam. Exposés of P612-million theft of OVP funds and P1.7-trillion flood works plunder by Sara and BBM’s allies prompted the meme ‘UniThieves.’

Many Filipinos opted for other president-VP tandems: Leni Robredo with Kiko Pangilinan, Ping Lacson with Tito Sotto, Manny Pacquiao with Lito Atienza, Isko Moreno with Willie Ong, Leody de Guzman with Walden Bello, among others.

Electronic fraud marred that 2022 election. Comelec’s central servers received precinct results from voting machines as early as 7:08 p.m. even before returns were printed out or transmitted by telcos. Most of the suspicious transmissions came from an unauthorized private IP address 192.168.0.2. Most poured in within an hour from close of balloting at 7 p.m. Shock and awe made the candidates, campaigners and voters accept the BBM-Sara “landslide.”

In Election 2016, Cayetano and BBM wooed Duterte to make them his VP runningmate. Both were Nacionalista Party officers. Duterte picked Cayetano, who lost. BBM lost too.

Family feud rocked Legarda’s 2022 senatorial run. Her son Lorenzo openly opposed her joining BBM and Sara. He posted on Facebook an open letter of grief. Excerpts:

“I’m writing this after learning that my mother Loren Legarda is running for senator on a slate led by a Marcos and a Duterte. She is endorsing fascists.

“For weeks I have been crying every day, screaming until I spat out blood. The decision she’s made is so profoundly unthinkable, unconscionable, unforgivable. In the last month my entire life has collapsed. It is beyond a nightmare. I still cannot believe it and will never be able to accept  it.

“For weeks I have been paralyzed in pain. I have no choice but to publicly declare that I am absolutely disgusted by my mother and what she has decided to do. It sickens me and makes me want to die. I need everyone to know that Loren Legarda lost her son forever because of this.”

Today Cayetano et al. claim that those who hit Sara’s P612-million fraud ignore BBM’s P1.7-trillion scandal. They overlook the facts: Sara’s brother Rep. Paolo Duterte got P52-billion public works allocations in the last three years of their father’s presidency, while Reps. Sandro Marcos and Martin Romualdez got P15.8 billion and P14.4 billion in the first three years of BBM’s tenure.

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“I am here to listen to the heroes.” Thus said Loren Legarda on Thursday, June 4,  at the rump Blue Ribbon committee hearing in which she claimed to still be Senate president pro tempore.

Her “heroes” are the 18 “maleta boys” who claim to have delivered for ex-congressman Zaldy Co P805 billion to politicos in 2024-2025. The money was stolen from flood works.

Interestingly, when the 18 maleta boys first spoke at a press conference on Feb. 24, 2026, they revealed three senators as recipients: Legarda, Mark Villar, Chiz Escudero. Legarda purportedly received two medium-sized suitcases each containing P40 million to P48 million.

Last Thursday the 18 didn’t mention the three anymore. They instead implicated Legarda’s ADVERSARIES Tito Sotto and Erwin Tulfo.

The problem is that the 18’s claims were faulty:

• Sotto’s loot supposedly was received for him by “executive assistant Mark” who happened to have died as far back as 2015;

• Tulfo, as party-list congressman up to mid-2025, had no flood funds allocations.

Discrepancies weakened the 18’s testimonies. Most glaring:

• Most had no first-hand knowledge of the supposed maleta deliveries, and could only say, “I was told by…;”

• They did not present any geo-stamped photo, video, document or CCTV footage of the supposed payoffs;

• They claimed that Zaldy Co’s chief of staff confiscated their mobile phones and replaced them with iPhone 16e units in 2024, yet that model came out in March 2025;

• They supposedly gave an envelope or a suitcase of cash to SVD priest Fr. Flavie Villanueva in a Society of Divine Word office along Mindanao Avenue, Quezon City, yet the SVD denied having any facility there. (Fr. Flavie represents families of hundreds of drug pushers slain during Duterte’s bloody war on drugs);

• One of the dates when Speaker Martin Romualdez received payolas was when Lord Allan Velasco was the Speaker;

• Supposed recipient ex-senator now Rep. Leila de Lima was in jail on trumped-up drug charges when the payola was made;

• The 18 and their lawyer Levito Baligod have yet to heed the ombudsman’s request to replace their joint affidavit with individual sworn statements that can stand in court;

• The June 4 BRC “hearing” was illegitimate so there were no stenographers, transcribers, recorders, Senate licensed livestream except by media outlets, nor official report of proceedings;

• Rodante Marcoleta, although already replaced as BRC vice chairman, led the hearing and even coached the 18 testifiers.

As all these happened in full public view, Filipinos came to disbelieve Legarda, Marcoleta and their chieftain Alan Cayetano.

But there’s one way to salvage the testimony of the 18. Legarda should affirm their heroism by admitting receipt of two suitcases of cash from them.

Cayetano and Marcoleta should work on her.