The legal counsel for 18 men who have presented themselves as ex-military personnel and alleged couriers for fugitive former lawmaker Zaldy Co said the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has rescinded the summons it had earlier extended to the group.
Attorney Levi Baligod, who represents the men, disclosed the development on Facebook, writing that an email had reached him the previous night carrying a directive from committee chairperson Senator Pia Cayetano to revoke the invitations. The notice, he indicated, offered no reasoning for the reversal. A Senate source separately validated the account in remarks to DZBB.
The men had been scheduled to appear at the panel’s hearing on flood control irregularities, the ninth in the series, set for Thursday, June 4. Earlier this year, the group identified themselves publicly as “bagmen” who said they ferried luggage stuffed with cash from the former Ako Bicol party-list representative to several recipients in government, claims that drew intense public attention to the long-running corruption inquiry.
Even with the invitations rescinded, the Senate Blue Ribbon Secretariat clarified that no advisory had been issued canceling the hearing itself, leaving the June 4 proceeding intact.
Co, who has been outside the country, remains a central figure in the broader flood control investigation that has implicated numerous officials and lawmakers, with the question of his eventual appearance before the panel still unresolved.
