Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the gated community where resigned congressman Elizaldy Co is possibly staying is comparable to Forbes Park in the Philippines, where property prices start at around €10 million.
Former Ako Bicol party-list congressman Elizaldy Co is reportedly depressed with his situation and wants to return to the country from Portugal, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said on Thursday, Jan. 22.
Remulla said this information came from “feelers” which Co reportedly sent through a group of priests, as he reportedly sought a dialogue with the government.
“He seems to have depression, he reportedly wants to return but it is nothing we can expound on,” Remulla said over radio dzBB.
Remulla clarified they are still validating Co’s alleged feelers, which he described as third hand information that reached his brother, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla.
“It’s third hand, a friend of a priest who is a friend of a friend of my brother, so it’s more of a marites,” the department chief said.
The DILG chief has also shared his plans to travel to Portugal to meet with Co’s liaison for surrender, a Filipino priest.
“I will make my way to Portugal soon and talk to the priest since I personally know him,” the interior chief told “Storycon” on One News on Thursday. “I’m asking permission from the President, but it must be soon.”
Should Remulla bump into Co in Lisbon, Remulla admitted that he cannot arrest him on the spot because the Philippines and Portugal do not have an extradition treaty.
The government is exploring other options to compel Co, a central player in the flood control mess, to come out of hiding. The fastest route is for the leaders of the two countries to agree on extracting Co from Portugal.
“The only hope is that our heads of state will have a meeting of the minds to deport him,” Remulla said. No meeting has been scheduled between President Marcos and either Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa or Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
Another route is to investigate potential crimes Co committed before applying for Portugal’s Golden Visa program, which he did a decade ago. Under that program, visa holders can be deported to their home countries.
Remulla said that their operatives on the ground have pinpointed Co’s exact location inside a high-end gated community in Lisbon, where the former congressman is hiding together with members of his family.
Citing information from their operatives in Portugal, Remulla said Co has kept himself out of the public eye. “He is under surveillance but he is not going out, he just stays inside the house,” the department chief said.
Remulla said Co is a poor man with a lot of money as he could not use the billions he allegedly siphoned from the government’s coffers through anomalous flood control projects.
“He cannot enjoy his money, his children are miserable with him over there,” the department chief said.
Co’s family also fled the Philippines for Portugal when the flood control corruption scandal broke out.
No objections
Malacañang has no objection to the possible holding of a dialogue between Co and the Office of the Ombudsman, which is probing the multibillion-peso flood control corruption scandal.
“Based on what I heard, he (Co) wants to communicate with the ombudsman. The ombudsman, even before, said all protection that needs would be provided. If it would help us know the truth, the government is open to knowing what he would say,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing yesterday.
Castro said it would be up to the ombudsman to determine the parameters of the dialogue in case it pushes through.
Asked if the Marcos administration is also open to similar discussions with Co, Castro replied: “There has been no suggestion for him to talk to the President or the administration. Let us wait for his response.”
Meanwhile, the PNP-Highway Patrol Group said a license plate attached to a Ferrari found in a condominium building in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig was registered to Co’s wife Mylene.
HPG director Brig. Gen. Hansel Marantan said the license plate was registered to another Ferrari based on their verification with the Land Transportation Office.
Meanwhile, four air assets linked to Co are still in Malaysia pending a forfeiture order from the Court of Appeals (CA).
Aboy Paraiso, head of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure’s technical working group on asset recovery and acting executive director of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, said the two helicopters and two jets are now under the custody of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, meaning they cannot be used anymore.
But without such order from the CA, the air assets cannot be flown back to the Philippines. – With EJ Macababbad, Alexis Romero