MANILA, Philippines – Fugitive former Ako Bicol representative Zaldy Co has been arrested in Prague, Czech Republic, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced on Thursday, April 16.

“He is now detained in Prague after crossing into the Czech Republic without proper documentation and is currently in the custody of Czech authorities. We are in close coordination with the Czech government to ensure that all legal processes are followed and to arrange for his return to the Philippines at the soonest possible time,” Marcos said on X on Thursday night.

Co, who chaired the House appropriations committee for the first half of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presidency, is alleged to be the mastermind of the hocus-pocus in the national budgets.

Co has been in hiding since July 2025, after Marcos blew the lid wide open on public works corruption in his State of the Nation Address. 

A subsequent press conference by the chief executive named Sunwest as among the top public works contractors of the government. The briefing complemented Rappler’s report months before the scandal, detailing Co’s beneficial ownership of Sunwest, which has bagged billions of pesos in government projects. 

He later resigned from Congress after refusing to face calls from Speaker Bojie Dy — who revoked his travel clearance — to go home.

Co claimed there are serious threats to his life, and in his video statements, alleged that Marcos and Romualdez are framing him to be “the poster boy of their own lies.”

He alleged that he made the budget insertions upon the orders of the President.

Flood control cases

Co’s warrant of arrest stemmed from his graft and malversation cases pending with the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. 

The former lawmaker, some Sunwest board members, and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Mimaropa officials were charged due to alleged irregularities in the procurement and construction of a flood control project along the Mag-asawang Tubig River in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, amounting to P289,498,230.06.

This was the first known case that reached the courts insofar as the flood control scam is concerned.

Last November, Marcos himself announced that the warrants had been issued against Co, but Philippine authorities had failed to arrest him for months. 

However, there were many attempts to bring Co home. The National Bureau of Investigation requested an Interpol Red Notice last December, which, if granted, would give an Interpol member state the power to arrest the former lawmaker. 

Sandiganbayan also canceled Co’s passport, removing his legal basis to remain in another country. The former lawmaker was also declared a fugitive from justice, which means that he cannot avail himself of relief from courts. 

While Co was out of the country as a fugitive, his fellow accused from DPWH Mimaropa had already faced the courts and are currently in the middle of their trial. 

The prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman had already finished presenting evidence in Co’s malversation case, focusing so far on the former lawmaker’s beneficial ownership of Sunwest and alleged involvement in DPWH bribery. – Rappler.com