The Philippine Department of Justice has acknowledged it cannot fully describe what Czech authorities actually did to fugitive former lawmaker Zaldy Co — an admission that contradicts the definitive language President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. used when he announced Co’s apprehension last week.
Co, who represented the Ako Bicol party-list and chaired the House appropriations committee during the first half of the Marcos administration, faces three Sandiganbayan arrest warrants connected to a multibillion-peso flood control scandal. He has been a fugitive since July 2025, when he left the Philippines citing a medical trip to the United States. His passport was canceled by the Sandiganbayan in December 2025, and the National Bureau of Investigation filed a request for an Interpol Red Notice the same month.
On April 16, Marcos announced on Facebook that Co had been caught. “Nahuli na si Zaldy Co. He is now detained in Prague after crossing into the Czech Republic without proper documentation and is currently in the custody of Czech authorities,” the president wrote. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla echoed those claims the same day, saying Co had been caught and that the government was working toward his deportation.
DOJ spokesperson Polo Martinez, speaking to reporters on Thursday and Friday, offered a markedly different account. The term “arrest,” he said, does not technically apply because Co has no outstanding warrant in the Czech Republic. Martinez described Co instead as “the subject of official law enforcement action by Czech authorities.”
“Arrest has a legal technical definition,” Martinez said. “An intervention involving Zaldy Co took place in Czech Republic — this fact was wholly ascertained and remains undisputed.”
What that intervention actually entailed, however, remains unclear to the Philippine side.
“We do not know yet the specific details of the intervention conducted on his person there. We’ll find out more once we have opened formal dialogue with Czech authorities,” Martinez told reporters.
He drew an analogy to airport immigration procedures. “To clarify, while he was not technically arrested, his liberty was restrained,” he said. “It’s similar to a situation in the airport where the person arrives and immigration denies entry or excludes the person. Technically, not arrested but there is a deprivation of liberty to a certain degree.”
The DOJ spokesperson also confirmed he could not say whether Co remains under Czech custody or has already been released. “We’ll find out soon enough,” Martinez said.
According to Philstar.com, Co was apprehended at the German border after crossing from Czech territory and remains within Czech jurisdiction. Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida has already left for Prague to coordinate Co’s return.
The clarification comes after days of pushback against anyone who questioned the administration’s framing. When former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on April 18 that Co had not been arrested in Prague, Palace press officer Claire Castro called Roque a “fake news peddler.”
Asked Friday how confident the administration is that Co will be brought home, Castro distinguished between what the Philippine government controls and what it does not. “Kung Pilipinas lamang po ang pag-uusapan natin, definitely confident po tayo,” she said. “Since mayroon pong ibang bansa na involve dito, so let us just hope na maibalik agad si Zaldy Co dito sa ating bansa.”
Martinez, for his part, maintained that the broader facts are not in dispute. “While he was not technically arrested, his liberty was restrained,” he reiterated — underscoring that the Philippine government’s case rests on Co’s continued presence in Czech hands, regardless of the precise legal label applied to the intervention.
