Erwin Tulfo files complaint vs Zaldy Co’s ex-bodyguards, Baligod, Defensor

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Erwin Tulfo on Wednesday, July 8, filed a criminal complaint against former congressman Michael Defensor, lawyer Levi Baligod, and former bodyguards of resigned lawmaker Zaldy Co over allegations that he is involved in the flood control mess.

Tulfo personally filed the grave oral defamation complaint before the Mandaluyong City Prosecutor’s Office. In June, he filed an oral defamation complaint against three of Co’s former bodyguards
before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office for claiming he received flood control project kickbacks and was involved in trafficking.

Tulfo said in his July 8 complaint that the respondents made “defamatory statements” against him in public “imputing serious criminal conduct against me, thereby subjecting me to unnecessary public contempt, ridicule, and disrepute which accusation were streamlined via social media.”

The former bodyguards made the allegation during the “flood control probe” led by Senator Rodante Marcoleta on June 4, or a day after the June 3 leadership shake-up that installed Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate president. Tulfo has been the chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, which is investigating the flood control probe, since June 3. (READ: Raffy Tulfo punches holes in 5 claims by Zaldy Co’s 18 alleged ex-bodyguards)

During the June 3 event, the former bodyguards claimed that they had delivered suitcases of money — the alleged flood control project kickbacks — to Tulfo, Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, ML Representative Leila de Lima, former congresswoman France Castro, and Catholic priest Father Flavie Villanueva. All those tagged in the allegations, who included personalities who were not in elective posts when the transactions were allegedly conducted, categorically denied this.

Tulfo told reporters on Wednesday that he did not have any flood control project or even farm-to-market road attributed to him when he took his oath as ACT-CIS congressman in 2023, and when he was elected to the Senate in 2025. The General Appropriations Act would attest to this, he said.

“I didn’t get any, even a single centavo from government projects. Wala. (Nothing.) Why will I get this so much money from Zaldy Co? Wala akong nakuha (I didn’t get anything) at all,” he said.

(I didn’t get any, not even a single centavo from government projects. Why will I get this so much money from Zaldy Co when I don’t have any projects?) – Rappler.com