Martin Romualdez, Zaldy Co to be invited to Senate hearing on flood control mess
Resigned Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez will be invited to the next hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee as it continues to investigate anomalies in flood control projects, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said.
According to Lacson, the invitations to Co and Romualdez should quash any perception that the Blue Ribbon Committee’s hearings favor or “protect” some individuals in its probe.
In an interview on NET25, Lacson laid out the steps the committee will take to ensure Co, who is currently outside the country, shows up.
“For the next hearing of the committee, we will send an invitation letter to his address. Now, we know he is abroad and will not show up. If that is the case, we will issue a subpoena, and then a show-cause order,” the senator said, reiterating that the committee is “not covering up for anyone here.”
“If the show-cause order is not satisfactory, we will cite him in contempt of the committee and issue a warrant for his arrest,” he continued.
The invitation for Romualdez will be sent through House Speaker Faustino Dy III, who succeeded the former when he stepped down on Sept. 17. In coursing it through Dy, Lacson said the committee is observing “the time-honored inter-parliamentary courtesy between the two houses of Congress.”
On Sept. 29, the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), headed by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Andres Reyes, Jr., submitted its first interim report to the Office of the Ombudsman. The report flagged possible anomalies in a P289.5-million flood control project in Oriental Mindoro. Co is listed as the project’s contractor.
That same day, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero gave a privilege speech at the Senate, where, at one point, he accused Romualdez of redirecting corruption allegations to the Senate.
“In the past weeks, it’s been very clear that public outrage over ghost and substandard projects is being diverted from those guilty to the Senate and to some of its members. Senators are being made fall guys,” Escudero claimed.
“There’s only one person behind this script and sarsuela—Martin Romualdez,” he continued.
Lacson said the committee is waiting for some developments of the case before it schedules the hearings for Romualdez and Co, who have both denied the corruption claims against them.
He also confirmed that the committee will continue its investigation as long as there are major developments that need to be explored.
“If we stop the probe now, we may reinforce the perception, rightly or wrongly, that we are covering up for someone. No. I said it clearly, we will go where the evidence leads us,” he said.
“Nobody is being targeted. Neither will anyone be shielded or spared. No matter how unpopular, even painful for me to hear the names of my colleagues being implicated by resource persons, I will not be deterred,” Lacson added.