Eighteen men who say they once delivered cash on behalf of fugitive former lawmaker Elizaldy Co have again been summoned to the Senate, this time by the faction that wrested control of the Blue Ribbon Committee in last week’s leadership shakeup. The invitation, signed for chairperson Senator Erwin Tulfo, covers the rescheduled panel hearing set for Monday, June 8.
The new notice lands after days of competing claims over who actually runs the committee. Tulfo was installed as Blue Ribbon chair after the new Senate majority declared committee posts vacant on Wednesday, June 3. His predecessor, Senator Pia Cayetano, has refused to recognize the reorganization. The two senators belong to the Cayetano bloc, which maintains that the reshuffle placing Tulfo at the head of the panel is invalid.
That dispute produced an unusual spectacle on June 4, the date the inquiry was originally meant to resume. Cayetano, still asserting that she holds the chairmanship, escorted the alleged former Marines into the Senate plenary hall and called a hearing to order, telling those present that she and her resource persons had been blocked from entering. Reporting by Rappler described pushing and blocking on a Senate staircase involving Cayetano and Senator Robin Padilla before the group reached the hall.
The men at the center of the summons surfaced earlier this year with claims that reached the highest levels of government. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the 18 supposed Marines said in February that they served as “bagmen” for Co, the former Ako Bicol representative now a fugitive, ferrying luggage stuffed with cash to certain officials. Their lawyer, Levito Baligod, has alleged that the deliveries reached the residences of President Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Tulfo has signaled he does not regard the witness roster he inherited as settled. “With regard to the invited resource persons, I do not agree, we have to review these people. Are they really saying anything? Will they really disclose something? We have to review these,” he said, after taking over the panel. He has also faulted how the original list was handled, telling reporters in a press conference that names were released publicly before committee members had a chance to weigh in. “The proper way to invite resource persons: You do not give it out to the media. You give it to the members first,” Tulfo said.
The chairman has framed the rescheduling as a matter of process rather than obstruction. “We are just moving the schedule date from tomorrow to prepare all members,” he told reporters, and he has proposed bringing every senator from both blocs onto the committee. “I declare and I manifested, that all members of the Senate be in the majority and the new minority now, they are all members of the Blue Ribbon Committee. Para wala pong masabi na ika nga may hokus pokus (So they can’t say that there is any hocus pocus going on),” he said.
The underlying inquiry remains sprawling. It has drawn in senators, district representatives, public works officials and private contractors over an alleged scheme to drain millions of pesos from substandard and nonexistent flood control projects. The Monday hearing list also reaches beyond the 18 men: Romualdez, who has repeatedly rejected accusations that he orchestrated the scandal and budget insertions, is among those invited, as is dismissed Bulacan assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez, who has implicated several lawmakers and is detained at the Quezon City Jail.
Whether Monday’s session avoids a repeat of June 4 is an open question. Interior chief Jonvic Remulla was told by Gatchalian that Tulfo’s committee had written the Sandiganbayan to set aside an earlier request to produce Hernandez before the Senate — a procedural maneuver that leaves the detained engineer’s appearance, and the cooperation of the witnesses generally, far from guaranteed.
