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Raissa Robles

A fugitive former Philippine lawmaker has accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr of directing him to add 100 billion pesos (US$1.7 billion) worth of dubious public works projects to the national budget, a claim that throws new fuel on the corruption scandal that has dogged his administration for months.
Analysts say the explosive allegation, made in a video sent to reporters by ex-appropriations chairman Zaldy Co, could feed a wider destabilisation push by rival political blocs, including allies of Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio who are preparing a major protest this weekend.
Co, once a key Marcos ally, resigned in late September after claiming his family faced “real, direct, grave and imminent” threats amid the flood control investigations.
“I hope I don’t get killed before I am able to reveal everything I know,” he said in the six-minute video. “[The president] told me, ‘I will shoot you if you talk.’”


Co said he left the country on July 19 for what he described as a medical check-up abroad, days before Marcos’ July 28 State of the Nation Address in which the president castigated the anomalous budget items.
“But former Speaker Martin told me to stay out of the country. You will be taken care of as instructed by the president,” Co said, referring to Marcos’ cousin and then House leader Martin Romualdez.
His claims place new scrutiny on the flood control works at the centre of a widening “ghost projects” scandal, in which billions of pesos in public works funds were allegedly channelled into contracts that were poorly documented, substandard or never built at all – fuelling public anger and multiple investigations.
The Marcos-created Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) said it would investigate the accusations.
Dave Gomez, acting secretary of the Presidential Communications Office, called the allegations “wild” and “pure hearsay”.
Gomez reminded the public it was the president who had exposed the anomalies and “taken numerous steps … to ensure the guilty are brought to justice, the stolen wealth recovered, and the system is fixed to avoid any of these from happening again”.
Co alleged that the president personally instructed him to add the disputed projects during last year’s drafting of the 2025 national budget, recounting a series of phone calls and meetings involving senior officials.
He said that sometime in December, as senators and lawmakers met to reconcile differences in the spending bill, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman phoned him to say that Marcos wanted 100 billion pesos worth of projects added to the bicameral conference report.
Co claimed she told him he could verify the instruction with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin – whom he mistakenly referred to as “Adrian” – because Bersamin had been present at the meeting where the president discussed the matter.
Co said he called Bersamin immediately and asked whether Marcos had issued the direction.
“He told me that is true,” he said.
He said he then contacted Romualdez, who allegedly told him, “what the president wants, he gets”.

Co added that Bersamin later handed him a list of projects to be added, explaining that Marcos had pulled the list out of “his brown leather bag”.
He used the anecdote to underscore the importance the president placed on the bag, recalling a May 2022 trip to Singapore where Marcos reportedly declared that “everything could be left behind except for that brown leather bag”.
Co said he warned Pangandaman that adding the items would make the public works budget larger than the education budget – a potential violation of the 1987 constitution – but was told to proceed anyway.
“Sec Mina told me, just do it … In other words, the order of the king cannot be broken,” he said.
Co is facing his own legal troubles relating to the ghost project scandal. The ICI has recommended charges against him involving 290 million pesos worth of flood control projects in Oriental Mindoro.
Political risk analyst Ronald Llamas said Co’s allegations were “not surprising”, describing them as part of his “transactional approach” to politics.
“Sooner or later, he will have to transact – who will give him protection, who will save his fortune,” Llamas told This Week in Asia.
He said Co’s account should be “taken with a grain of salt”, arguing that it was “weird” for a president to rely on informal insertions when he already oversees the preparation of the national budget before it is submitted to Congress.
Llamas said Co needed to provide “concrete evidence” to back his claims, but warned that the allegations could nonetheless become the spark for a destabilisation bid, beginning with this Sunday’s rally by Duterte-Carpio supporters.
The protest is the latest flashpoint in a deepening power struggle between the Marcos and Duterte clans, whose alliance swept them to a joint victory in the 2022 elections but has since unravelled amid public feuds and mutual accusations of betrayal.
“This has been the trigger they are looking for,” he said, noting that Senator Imee Marcos – the president’s estranged sister and a Duterte ally – had earlier announced that Co would testify at the Senate investigation into flood control anomalies.

He warned that the risk of a withdrawal of military support for Marcos had increased because Co, as a former palace insider, could lend credibility to destabilisation narratives.
“The possibility of a destabilisation, a withdrawal of support, just got much bigger because of [Co’s] personality,” he said.
Following Co’s revelations, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Romeo Brawner Jnr said the military was currently verifying reports of an “active-duty soldier” being involved in destabilisation efforts.
“Those who are calling for soldiers to join the rallies and calling for a coup d’etat – don’t expect the [armed forces] to carry out unconstitutional activities,” he warned.
“We will not stage a coup. We will not become a military junta, because the country will suffer for it.”
Llamas said both China and the US were likely to involve themselves if the political crisis deepened, because a transition to a Duterte-Carpio government “will favour China, it will not be favourable for the Americans, especially if the goal is to install Sara”.
He also pointed to recent OCTA Research findings that showed 70 per cent of Filipinos opposed military intervention in politics.
“But the problem is, even a failed [military] mutiny can be as damaging as a successful one, with the economy being as it is right now and with our weakened political institutions,” he said.
A veteran financial-market figure, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was suspicious of Co’s timing: the video was released just days before a large protest this Sunday, reportedly backed by supporters of the Die‑hard Duterte Supporters movement together with members of the Iglesia ni Cristo, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide – a loose alliance of political, religious and grass-roots groups.
“If Co’s revelations are true, then the US-Philippine peso currency exchange rates and the stock market will fall and the economy could suffer more,” he said.


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Fugitive ex-Philippine official accuses Marcos of ordering bogus flood control projects

Left: Screenshot from video released by fugitive Philippine ex-lawmaker Zaldy Co, in which he accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr of ordering him to insert 100 billion Philippine pesos in dubious flood control projects into the national budget. Right: Marcos at the Apec CEO Summit in Gyeongju on October 3. Photo: AFP 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr with then House speaker Martin Romualdez during his State of the Nation Address in Manila on July 28. Romualdez resigned weeks later after being linked to the widening flood-control corruption scandal. Photo: AFP

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President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio during an event in Manila in January 2024. The former allies have now become open rivals. Kyodo

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Ex-appropriations chairman Zaldy Co claims Marcos directed him to add US$1.7 billion in dubious projects to the national budget


Ex-appropriations chairman Zaldy Co claims Marcos directed him to add US$1.7 billion in dubious projects to the national budget.


Fugitive ex-Philippine official accuses Marcos of ordering bogus flood control projects

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Ex-appropriations chairman Zaldy Co claims Marcos directed him to add US$1.7 billion in dubious projects to the national budget

Ex-appropriations chairman Zaldy Co claims Marcos directed him to add US$1.7 billion in dubious projects to the national budget