Fourteen men who identified themselves as one-time money carriers for fugitive former congressman Zaldy Co secured their temporary liberty this week, their counsel Levito Baligod confirmed Friday, after courts across Metro Manila set bail on cyber libel and perjury complaints lodged against them.
Speaking to reporters outside the Regional Trial Court in Las Piñas City, Baligod put the tab in that court alone at north of P1 million, corresponding to four perjury counts leveled at each of the 14. The men also had to arrange bail in San Juan City, Caloocan City, and Muntinlupa City, where the cyber libel cases landed.
Asked how the sum was raised, the lawyer said the money came straight from his household. “You want to know where it came from? From my wife and my personal resources. Ay, you do not underestimate our love for this country,” he told the press.
The group, tagged in public reports as the “Maleta Boys,” has said it ferried luggage stuffed with hundreds of millions of pesos in supposed payoff money to senior political figures. Eighteen men made up the original roster.
That number shrank when four backed away from their accounts. The recanting members said Baligod had scripted their statements, dangling two years of financial support for their protection and safety as the trade-off.
Baligod called that version overblown, an “exaggeration,” and said his help extended only to family necessities such as medical bills, framing the entire effort as an act of love for country. “I consider them my responsibility because we were together when we agreed to bring out to the poor kung ano ‘yong nalalaman nila tungkol dito sa corruption,” he said, adding, “Pilipino ako. Mahal ko ang ating bayan.”
The remaining members offered a sharply different reading of why their four former colleagues turned. According to them, sums ranging from P20 million to P25 million were put on the table to buy the reversals.
George Villalon, one of those still standing by the original claims, addressed the four directly. “Sana mapag-isipan niyong mabuti ‘yong sinasabi niyo. Nagpadala kayo sa pera,” he said.
