From Fall Guy to Nuclear Option: Zaldy Co Just Dropped the Mother of All Bombs

What the President Wants, Gets” – The Six Words That Could Bring Malacañang Down

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — November 14, 2025

SPARE me the crocodile tears and the sanctimonious press releases. One day after the Senate hearing that featured exactly zero Romualdez, zero Co, and a hundred percent theater, a five-minute video drops from somewhere abroad. Former Ako Bicol Party-List Representative Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co looks straight into the camera and says: “They made me the poster boy of their own lies. I’m done staying quiet. I have receipts, evidence, and names.” And then he names them. All of them.

Act I – “What the President Wants, Gets” (A Phrase That Should Haunt Malacañang Forever)

Late 2024. The bicameral conference committee (bicam) on the 2025 General Appropriations Act is in full swing. Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman allegedly calls Co: “The President wants [P100 billion inserted].” Co, playing the dutiful soldier, asks for confirmation. Pangandaman tells him to call Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Bersamin of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO). Bersamin confirms: he was in the same room when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gave the order. Co then calls then-Speaker Martin Romualdez. The reply? “What the president wants, gets.” Let that sentence echo in your skull for a second. It’s the unofficial motto of every dictatorship this country has ever survived.

Act II – The Brown Leather Bag That Could Topple an Administration

A hush-hush meeting inside a Malacañang building. Attendees: Pangandaman, Bersamin, Romualdez, Department of Justice Undersecretary Jojo Cadiz, and Co. Bersamin allegedly pulls out a list — P100 billion worth of pet projects — from a brown leather bag. Cadiz helpfully clarifies: “This came directly from the President.” That bag now has more star power than half the actors in Philippine cinema.

Act III – How to Dispose of a Fall Guy, Marcos-Romualdez Edition

July 2025. Marcos thunders in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) against “anomalous flood-control projects.” Romualdez immediately calls Co: “Don’t come home yet. Stay abroad. You’ll be taken care of — presidential instruction.” Translation: Shut your mouth or we’ll make you the only villain in this story. Co obeyed. Until he realized “taken care of” meant “turned into human sacrifice.”

The Law Doesn’t Do “Presidential Privilege” Cosplay

Article VI, Section 25(1), 1987 Constitution – Congress may not increase the appropriations recommended by the President. Ordering a P100-billion top-up is constitutional treason.
Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), Section 3(e) – Causing undue injury through manifest partiality or gross inexcusable negligence. Everyone who touched that brown leather bag just volunteered.
Republic Act No. 7080 (Plunder Law, as amended) – Threshold: P50 million. They allegedly inserted double that in one afternoon. Plunder 2.0 just went live.
Belgica v. Executive Secretary Ochoa (G.R. No. 208566, 19 Nov. 2013) – The Supreme Court already killed congressional pork barrel and post-enactment project identification. This is PDAF on steroids.
Estrada v. Sandiganbayan (G.R. No. 148560, 21 Nov. 2001) – Conspiracy doesn’t require everyone to pocket cash; it just needs a “combination or series of overt acts.” A brown leather bag + “What the president wants, gets” = Exhibit A. Presidential immunity? It’s a shield, not a crown of invincibility. Ask Joseph Estrada how that worked out.

The “Co Is Just a Rogue Actor” Defense Is Already Laughing in the Crematorium

If Co were truly rogue, why did Romualdez personally instruct him to stay abroad “per the President”? Why was the list delivered inside Malacañang? Why hasn’t Malacañang released the CCTV footage yet? I’ll wait. Forever, apparently.

Place Your Bets – Next Episodes of “As the Palace Burns”

Co drops Part 2 with actual receipts. Malacañang servers spontaneously combust.
The Office of the Ombudsman fast-tracks charges against Co while pretending the big fish swim in a different ocean.
Marcos throws Pangandaman and Bersamin under the presidential bus. Romualdez suddenly develops amnesia.
The House supermajority circles the wagons faster than you can say “impeachment-proof.”
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee finally earns its budget.

Wildcard – The “Deepfake” Gambit

Co’s camp suddenly claims the video is an AI deepfake. Malacañang screams vindication, floods social media with “expert” analyses blaming foreign agents or the opposition. Six months later, forensics quietly confirm it was real all along — but by then the caravan has moved on, and the brown leather bag is safely memory-holed. Classic Philippine damage control: deny, deflect, drown in noise.

This Is Why Your Barangay Still Floods Every July

That P100 billion didn’t evaporate. It was stolen from classrooms that will stay half-built. From medicines that will never reach rural health units. From actual, functioning flood-control projects while Metro Manila drowns. This is what impunity looks like in 4K: a President allegedly ordering a treasury heist, then launching an “anti-corruption” crusade to hunt the same bagmen he sent. We have seen this movie. We know the ending when the audience stays seated.

Demand. Now.

Malacañang and the House: Open every bicam record, every message thread, every brown leather bag. Today.
Office of the Ombudsman: Investigate every name Co mentioned. No sacred cows.
Senate: Subpoena every soul who was in that room. Live. Under oath. No excuses.
If the evidence holds, prosecute everyone — Co, Romualdez, Marcos — rank be damned. Because if this country still has a spine left, this is the line in the sand. They crossed it. Now we make them choke on it.

— Barok out!