A Facebook post claims that resigned Ako Bicol partylist representative Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co and former House speaker Martin Romualdez have been arrested and are now facing imprisonment. This is not true.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson had said Co and Romualdez will be invited to the next Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on flood control project anomalies. The embattled Co has been out of the country since early this year, shortly after he was replaced as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Co has been mentioned to have maneuvered the anomalous budget insertions supposedly upon the instructions of Romualdez that have led to the flood control scandal, involving long-delayed, substandard or even non-existent projects in many parts of the country.
Uploaded on Oct. 3, the post’s thumbnail partly read:
“SALDI NAHULE NA? SAWAKAS MAKOKOLONG? GAME UVER NA? (Saldi, already caught? Will finally be jailed? It’s game over?).”
It carried a caption:
“BIGLAAN TO! Makukulong na? Sen. Chiz Tinapos si SALDI at MARTEN Iyak Kar ma? kULONG ang Dalawa (THIS IS SUDDEN! They’ll be imprisoned? Sen. Chiz ends Saldi and Marten, cry for karma? The two are imprisoned).”
On Sept. 30, Lacson said the Senate will send Co an invitation to appear before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee probe.
However, if he fails to do so, he will be issued a subpoena and a show-cause order. If the show-cause order is not satisfactory, Lacson said he will be cited in contempt and issued a warrant of arrest.
The Department of Justice had also requested the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to serve a blue notice to the former lawmaker, which could track a person’s location in relation to a criminal investigation.
For Romualdez, Lacson said the invitation for him will be coursed through House Speaker Faustino Dy III, “in observation of the time-honored inter-parliamentary courtesy between the two houses of Congress.”
However, Lacson said on Oct. 5 that he will be resigning as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee. He said he has sensed that some of his colleagues in the majority bloc were unhappy over his handling of the flood control investigation. Earlier, he canceled the Oct. 8 hearing “until further notice” because the supposed “tell-all” affidavit/s of the Discayas would not be available yet.
Facebook page Duterte Active Supporters (created on Nov. 14, 2017) published the erroneous post, collectively garnering over 406 reactions, 116 comments and 52 shares as of writing.
