Zaldy Co’s replacement assumes post today

MANILA, Philippines — The substitute for resigned congressman Zaldy Co is expected to join the House of Representatives today once sessions resume in Congress after a month-long Undas break.

Co’s post as first nominee of party-list Ako Bicol will be taken over by his long-time colleague, Alfredo Garbin Jr., while third nominee Jan Almario Chan will take the place of Garbin, pursuant to the line of succession and protocol of the party-list organization.

Co, now in hiding, was forced to relinquish his post last September following allegations of massive corruption, by way of alleged insertions in the 2025 national budget, as well as alleged links to Sunwest Corp., a construction company contractor in the multibillion-peso flood control projects nationwide. 

He was also forced to step down after Speaker Faustino Dy III issued a 10-day ultimatum, when he was also facing an administrative suit before the House ethics committee that was supposed to suspend and possibly expel him for defying the House leadership. 

“Attorney Chan will assume office on Nov. 10,” Garbin said, the date when Congress will end their month-long recess and resume session, and eventually convene the bicameral conference committee to pass the 2026 national budget. 

It could not be known yet, however, whether Ako Bicol has already informed the Commission on Elections of Chan’s inclusion in the congressmen’s roll, and if the Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc. in the House has already met for purposes of electing Co’s replacement as PCFI president. 

Co’s whereabouts are unknown, other than that he is overseas. 

“In behalf of the real, direct, grave and imminent (threats) to the lives of my family members and me, and the evident denial of my right to due process of law, I am constrained to tender my immediate and irrevocable resignation as a member of the House,” he wrote to the Speaker.  

Co served as chairman of the House appropriations committee in the 19th Congress (July 2022 to June 2025) that crafted the alleged anomalous national budget for 2025, where hundreds of billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money were inserted in the spending measure. 

In a three-page letter, which included his defense on the complaint filed against him before the House ethics committee headed by Rep. Jonathan Clement Abalos, Co vowed to go after his colleague, fellow representative Toby Tiangco, for the suit even as he belied everything in the complaint. 

“I am reserving my right to address the sham and baseless accusations made by Tiangco at the appropriate time and before the appropriate forum,” Co said. 

He described the ethics suit as “baseless,” particularly to allegations he was the brainchild behind the billions of insertions made in the 2025 General Appropriations Act, whose question of validity is now pending in the Supreme Court and before the Office of the Ombudsman. 

“I did not mastermind, tolerate or allow any supposed last-minute (insertions) and realignments in the 2025 GAA. All items in the 2025 GAA, including those stated in the corresponding bicameral report, were approved at plenary sessions and following the collegial process of Congress,” he reiterated.

“It is improbable, if not absolutely impossible, that I, on my own, could make any supposed insertions without the knowledge or approval of the members of both chambers of Congress,” Co said, implying all provisions and budget changes were sanctioned by senators and congressmen.

Meanwhile, at the House, work and plenary sessions of congressmen – which have been suspended for a day following Typhoon Uwan’s onslaught yesterday – will resume at 3 p.m. today.