Romualdez urged Co to run for House seat—ex-security aide

MANILA — A former close-in security aide of fugitive ex-congressman Zaldy Co testified Monday that he overheard Co and his wife discussing how Rep. Martin Romualdez urged Co to run for a House seat.

Police Chief Master Sergeant Larry Bellen, who worked for Co for eight years starting 2018, said the couple talked about it over a meal.

“Habang kumakain… nabanggit sa asawa niya na hinikayat [si Co] na ma-nominate sa Ako Bicol Partylist,” Bellen said during the Sandiganbayan’s bail hearing of Romualdez’s plunder case.

Co served as the chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations from July 2022 to January 2025. 

Bellen also said he helped bring 10 to 12 suitcases to Co’s unit at Horizon Homes in BGC, Taguig. Each trolley he pushed carried three to four suitcases.

He said he was already seeing suitcases even before Co became a congressman, but claimed he had no personal knowledge of what was inside them.

Bellen added that Co’s secretary told him the contents of four suitcases in Co’s office were to be deposited.

He also said he trained John Paul Estrada on his duties as executive aide.

Estrada was earlier named by another ex-bodyguard of Co, George Villalon Jr., as the aide they saw counting cash that was placed inside suitcases.

Police Major Alvin Alvaro Nuguid, another security aide of Co, testified that he saw other bodyguards carry suitcases from the basement to Co’s BGC unit about two to three times a week.

For more than a year, Nuguid said he saw around 50 to 60 suitcases in front of Co’s unit.

Asked how he knew there was money inside, Nuguid said he heard fellow ex-bodyguards joking about it.

“Naririnig ko po ‘yung mga biruan na may pera sa basura,” he said.

Nuguid also said he saw Romualdez visit Co at the unit in 2025. Asked by the court how long the visit lasted, he said around two hours.

He added that he accompanied Co to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in July 2025 for his flight to the United States, ahead of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address.