DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. tagged former Ako Bicol party-list representative Zaldy Co in an alleged attempt to manipulate the importation of basic agricultural commodities such as sugar, rice and fish.
In a press conference Thursday, November 27, 2025, Laurel debunked Co’s latest corruption allegations of political interference in food prices, calling them a “fabricated lie” crafted to divert public attention from the mounting legal troubles Co faces over a controversial flood-control project.
Laurel noted President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s marching order to him upon his appointment in September 2023: “clean it up” and “do what you have to do.”
“That was the directive: clean up the Department of Agriculture. So I immediately began researching and investigating all these allegations of corruption and illicit practices,” Laurel said.
Laurel said that in March 2024, Co invited him to Polo Townhomes in Makati City to meet a major sugar importer seeking a 200,000-metric-ton sugar allocation, an encounter that “shocked” him.
He said Co’s request was rejected, as the Sugar Regulatory Administration had issued Sugar Order No. 2, which set an updated allocation system meant to eliminate favoritism.
The total sugar import allocation for 2024 was 280,000 metric tons.
Laurel said contrary to Co’s claim that he recommended importing 13 million metric tons of rice in 2024, it was the former congressman who made the suggestion.
“That volume would kill our farmers—it equals 20 million MT of palay, our entire national production,” Laurel said.
He added that Co also pushed for a zero-percent tariff on rice imports, a proposal rejected by both him and then–Finance secretary Ralph Recto.
Laurel likewise denied Co’s claim that he halted a Senate Committee on Agriculture (Quinta Committee) hearing by producing a confidential report implicating First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos in controlling rice importation.
“This is a fabricated lie. The First Lady has never meddled in DA matters,” Laurel said.
Laurel also reiterated his earlier statement that Co had demanded 3,000 containers of imported fish for companies he had nominated.
He presented what he said was an exchange of text messages between him and Co.
“Malinaw na hindi ko siya pinagbigyan… may system na kaming fair and transparent,” Laurel said.
(It’s clear that I didn’t grant his request… we now have a fair and transparent system.)
“After refusing him twice, I felt his resentment. He began undermining me,” he added.
Turning to onions, Laurel traced the 2023 price surge to a supply-and-demand collapse rooted in October 2022, when the Bureau of Plant Industry reported critically low stocks and pushed for urgent importation, recommendations that went unacted upon. Prices eventually soared to as high as P700 per kilo.
He also dismissed as “baseless” the rumors linking presidential brother-in-law Martin Araneta to onion importation.
“In my two years as Secretary of Agriculture, he has never made a single importation request—unlike Zaldy Co,” Laurel said.
“He pretends to care for farmers and consumers, but his greed is clear. Zaldy Co, come home and face your cases. That is what the Filipino people demand,” he added. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)