DILG Gives Fugitive Ex-Congressman Zaldy Co Until Monday to Surrender

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla has given former Ako-Bicol party-list Representative Zaldy Co and 17 officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Sunwest Corporation until Monday to surrender to authorities.

Remulla said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is still awaiting copies of the arrest warrants before issuing a memorandum ordering the individuals to surrender.

“It will state that we are giving you until Monday to surrender at the nearest government agency and present yourselves so we can bring you before the authorities. Otherwise, we will search for you,” Remulla said in a radio interview on Saturday.

He warned that they will be considered fugitives if they do not turn themselves in.

“If they hide, then we will consider them fugitives of justice. If they show any aggressive or evasive maneuvers, then we may have no choice. I have a heavy hand when it comes to situations like this… I will use the full force of the law to bring them in,” he added.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director and officer-in-charge Atty. Angelito Magno likewise urged Co and the other accused to surrender voluntarily.

“Surrender now, while dignity is still a choice and not a consequence. Hiding will not change the evidence, the charges, or the reach of the law,” Magno said.

“A warrant is not a storm you wait out it is a responsibility you confront,” he added.

The NBI has already deployed a team to carry out the swift arrest of those implicated in the allegedly anomalous flood control projects.

This development follows President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s announcement regarding the issuance of arrest warrants for Co and the 17 DPWH and Sunwest officials, based on evidence submitted by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure and the DPWH.

Police officers, however, were unable to serve the arrest warrant on Co at his condominium unit in Taguig on Saturday afternoon after no one answered from inside.

Remulla earlier stated that Co was last seen in Japan.