Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla will travel to Lyon, France, to follow up with Interpol on a renewed request for a red notice against ousted Ako Bicol party list congressman Zaldy Co, who remains wanted in connection with the government’s flood control scandal.
Remulla said Tuesday that he will again file the request with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), whose headquarters is in Lyon.
“We are filing a red notice for Zaldy Co again. Coincidentally, I am also going to Lyon, France to follow up on his red notice with Interpol,” Remulla said during a press briefing at Camp Crame.
He said Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla will also travel to France to pursue diplomatic efforts with authorities.
“So Ombudsman Boying announced that he is going to Paris also to talk to the authorities there,” he said.
“I will work with the Interpol, he will work with the diplomatic efforts to get Zaldy Co. As far as the other ones, I will wait for the further report; I can’t say yet,” Remulla added.
An Interpol red notice asks law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action. The Philippine government initially sought a red notice against Co in April.
Co’s last reported location was Prague, Czech Republic, where authorities had previously detained him for lacking proper documentation after his Philippine passport was canceled. Czech authorities later released him.
Remulla said the government’s efforts to locate Co and his co accused in the alleged anomalous flood control projects remain ongoing.
He did not disclose whether the Philippine National Police or the Department of the Interior and Local Government had received any feelers from Co about surrendering.
Co was again covered by an arrest warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan, this time alongside Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez, over a plunder case involving more than P7 billion in alleged kickbacks from various government projects.
Romualdez was arrested Monday night at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City, where he had been confined after reportedly experiencing a “cardiovascular event.”
Authorities have been tracking Co’s movements across Europe since April. He was previously located in Portugal and was later reported to have traveled by land through France before reaching Prague.
The renewed Interpol request comes as authorities continue efforts to locate Co and bring him back to the Philippines to face the cases filed against him.
Photo courtesy of Inquirer.net
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