Court allows seizure of Co’s assets

THE Philippines’ anti-graft court has issued a writ allowing the government to potentially seize the assets of a resigned lawmaker embroiled in a multibillion-peso graft scandal, which would be used as repayment for civil damages if he is found guilty in the case against him.

In a 13-page resolution dated March 4, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division sided with government prosecutors’ motion to include 16 properties of former Party‑list Rep. Elizaldy S. Co, worth a total of P215 million, for possible repayment of damages tied to a faulty dike project.

Mr. Co and the co-accused “willfully misapplied public funds through falsified narrations and thereby caused undue injury to the government,” the prosecution’s motion read.

Lawyer Ruy Alberto S. Rondain, Mr. Co’s counsel, did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.

Mr. Co, who previously headed the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, is at the center of a multibillion-peso graft scandal linked to anomalous flood control deals, with accusations that he allowed the system of kickbacks to persist while heading the budget panel. He has since left the country and has not returned. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio