THE Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will issue a show-cause order against former Ako Bicol Party-list representative Zaldy Co and retired Sergeant Orly Guteza over their persistent failure to attend the panel’s inquiry into anomalous flood control projects.
During the resumption of the committee’s hearing, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said arrest warrants will be issued against the two if they continue to snub the proceedings.
This came after Senate President Vicente Sotto III encouraged the panel to issue arrest warrants against Co and Guteza for their failure to respond to subpoenas initially issued by the committee.
“In deference to the latest Supreme Court ruling, let’s first issue a show-cause order. If the response is unsatisfactory, we will cite them for contempt and eventually issue arrest warrants,” Lacson said.
Co, former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, was implicated in the controversy for allegedly receiving billions of pesos worth of kickbacks from anomalous flood control projects.
He has a standing arrest warrant over irregularities in the implementation of a P289-million road dike project in Oriental Mindoro.
Co, who is reportedly in hiding abroad, released a series of video statements pointing to former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as the alleged “recipients” of kickbacks from the projects.
In his testimony before the Senate panel in September, Guteza said he served as Co’s security personnel from December 5, 2024, to August 2025.
During the said period, he said he delivered luggage containing millions of pesos in cash -- referred to as “trash” -- to Romualdez’s residences in Pasig and Taguig at least three times.
In his video statement, Co corroborated Guteza’s claims, even showing photos of luggage supposedly containing stashes of cash.
That was the last time Guteza was seen in public. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)