Senator Kiko Pangilinan announced Tuesday that he is preparing slander charges against individuals identified as former staff of ex-Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, declaring that the people behind recent allegations involving his family will have to answer for their statements in court.
The senator argued the timing and substance of the claims were designed to undercut him. He suggested his name was dragged into the controversy “to stain my reported appointment as chairperson of the Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee that will investigate the flood-control scam.”
Dismissing the accusations as baseless, Pangilinan characterized the assertions made by Co’s purported employees as “insinuations” and said their statements “have no basis.”
The allegations surfaced at a press conference organized by former congressman Mike Defensor, where individuals described as “ex-bagmen” detailed deliveries of cash-filled suitcases to a roster of named politicians. While Pangilinan appeared in photographs displayed at the event — images showing Co’s alleged employees alongside his wife, actress Sharon Cuneta, with the senator positioned to one side — he was not directly identified as among those who received the suitcases.
In his statement, Pangilinan signaled he would pursue legal action rather than respond through public exchanges. “Because you, through your open forum about the suitcases allegedly linked to billions of pesos stolen from the public treasury, have implicated my family, you will now face something that is neither an insinuation, an allegation, nor a spectacle — in court,” he said, adding: “You will be held accountable for the slander you have committed.”
