Dear Secretary Pangandaman, Love Zaldy Co: A P100-Billion Budget Break-Up Letter (With Receipts)

P.S. The President wants P100 billion inserted. P.P.S. Bring suitcases.

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — November 16, 2025

EXCLUSIVE: Fugitive Zaldy Co drops suitcase porn – literal stacks of cash allegedly delivered to Martin Romualdez – while flashing a brown leather bag of ghost flood projects. Somewhere in Malacañang, a Budget Secretary is speed-dialling her lawyer and praying the internet dies tonight.

“Ma’am, the President Wants P100 Billion Inserted. Like, Yesterday.”

Former Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co claims Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman personally rang him up to relay a simple presidential wish: slip P100 billion (yes, billion with a B) into the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) after the National Expenditure Program (NEP) had already been submitted. Co says he double-checked with Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin, got a thumbs-up, then dutifully informed then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez—who allegedly replied, “What the President wants, the President gets.”

“Aboveboard Po, Promise! Separation of Powers Pa More!”

Secretary Pangandaman’s response was a masterclass in bureaucratic innocence: “All appropriations ordered by the President are already in the NEP. The bicameral conference committee (bicam) is purely legislative. Our actions are aboveboard.” In short: nothing to see here, just a fugitive hallucinating on exile-grade adobo.

**Philippine infrastructure: now 100% water-resistant to accountability.**

Giving the Devil (and the Angel) Their Best Lines—Before We Torch Them

Zaldy Co’s Oscar-worthy whistleblower monologue

Names, dates, suitcases, project lists—he’s got receipts (or at least blurry photos).
In a country that perfected pork-barrel ghost deliveries long before Grab existed, his story isn’t just plausible; it’s practically the national anthem.

Why the monologue falls apart faster than a DPWH flood wall

The man is a fugitive, waist-deep in the same flood-control racket he now claims to expose. His Road-to-Damascus moment arrived exactly when the administration decided he was more useful as the fall guy than as appropriations chair.
Those suitcases? Dramatic. Verifiable? So far, about as solid as the dikes in Camarines Sur.

Pangandaman’s constitutional virginity defense

She’s technically correct—the 1987 Constitution does say the President proposes, Congress disposes. Executive meddling in bicam is arguably unconstitutional. Clean hands, clean process, clean conscience.

Why the halo slips

Because in Philippine politics, the Constitution is less a rulebook and more a coffee-table decoration.
When the President’s cousin runs the House and the Budget Secretary is allegedly making “courtesy calls” about insertions, those neat little separation-of-powers boxes look suspiciously like they were drawn in disappearing ink.

How to Turn P100 Billion into Private Jet Money in Six Easy Steps (Your tax pesos at work)

Insert vague lump-sum items during bicam (perfectly legal).
Identify “urgent” projects after the President signs the GAA (still legal).
Rig the bidding so your favorite contractor wins at 200% of real cost (technically legal if you grease the right palms).
Build 30% of the project (optional).
Deliver kickbacks in cash-stuffed suitcases (strictly SOP).
Repeat until the country is literally underwater.

While They Argue Over Phone Calls, Children Swim to School

The same P100 billion that allegedly traveled in suitcases could have built actual flood-control infrastructure. Instead, towns drown, mothers lose everything, and the Commission on Audit (COA) keeps finding “ghost projects” that exist only in PowerPoint and press releases.

The Pathetic Escape Routes (Place Your Bets, Folks)

Co drops a few more blurry photos, cries on CNN International, then negotiates a cushy plea deal from Dubai.
Pangandaman hides behind “process” until the next scandal (give it two weeks).
Malacañang orders a “thorough investigation” that will be buried deeper than the flood victims.
Congress investigates itself and—shockingly—finds itself innocent.

The One Path That Doesn’t Reek of Cowardice

Zaldy Co: come home, swear an affidavit, hand over every photo, every list, every suitcase tag to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Senate.

Secretary Pangandaman: open every inserted project to an immediate, independent COA special audit—bidding docs, variation orders, bank trails, everything.

Senate: subpoena the brown leather bag, the suitcases, Bersamin, and anyone who breathed in that bicam room.

No more press-con denials. No more dare-you-to-sue-me TikToks. Just evidence. Just truth. Just justice. Because if we let this one drown like all the others, we deserve the flood.