The Office of the Ombudsman filed before the Sandiganbayan on Tuesday the first graft and malversation charges against government officials and contractors involved in the flood control mess including former Ako-Bicol partylist Rep. Zaldy Co.

The filing was announced by Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla in a TV interview on Tuesday.

"We did file a case already today at the Sandiganbayan. Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano went to the Sandiganbayan to file cases today and it will be raffled off tomorrow and hopefully we will get an arrest warrant very soon," he said.

The first flood control related cases were filed by the Ombudsman after two months of investigation. The Ombudsman said it has issued a resolution finding probable cause to file criminal charges in connection with serious irregularities uncovered in major flood control projects in Oriental Mindoro, said Clavano.

Co, who headed the House appropriations committee, accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., former Speaker Martin Romualdez and other cabinet members of allegedly orchestrating the insertion of P100 billion in the 2025 national budget in three videos he posted on his Facebook page on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

In a press conference in Quezon City, Clavano said aside from Co "several officials of the Department of Public Works Region 4B including the regional director, assistant regional directors, project engineer, materials engineer, and chiefs of the quality assurance, maintenance and design divisions and the board of directors of Sun West Corporation as private respondents" were charged before the Sandiganbayan for the flood control project in Oriental Mindoro amounting to P289,498,230. 06.

"They face the following charges, first malversation of public funds, thru falsification of public documents under Article 217, in relation to Article 171, paragraph four of the Revised Penal Code, violation of Section 3e of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or RA 3019 and for former Congressman Co violation of Section 3h of RA 3019 for receiving unwarranted financial or pecuniary benefits," he said.

"The bail recommendation, because the amount malversed exceeds 8.8 million pesos, and in line with the law and jurisprudence, the panel of ombudsman prosecutors has recommended no bail for the malversation charge," he added.

Remulla said a motion for the cancellation of Co's passport was also filed together with the charges before the Sandiganbayan. He left the country almost four months ago.

"It's already in court. It was filed at the docket division of Sandiganbayan. It will be raffled off tomorrow and after the raffle the court itself will have to rule on whether to issue a warrant of arrest and whether or not to cancel his passport," he said.

"Interpol is one option that we have," he added when asked how the arrest warrant against Co will be implemented.

Clavano said ''that this is the first of many cases that will be filed in court."

"There are several cases in the preliminary investigation stage and more in the fact finding stage, we will update the media and the public as these cases become ripe for filing in court as well," he said. Robina Asido/DMS