(Note: Image for this column was produced with the help of Google Gemini.)
The revelation by Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla about the construction of a five-level basement vault in the Forbes Park home of former Ako Bicol Party-list representative Zaldy Co makes us wonder if he got the idea of having an underground storage place to keep his loot from the Korean drama, Vincenzo.
In an interview with Karen Davila on ANC on Dec. 23, Remulla said the structure was not designed for parking. “It’s not for cars. It’s for money,” he said flatly.
Co, now a fugitive and reported to be in Portugal, chaired the powerful House Appropriations Committee from 2022 to 2025.
Remulla said with the enormous amount that Co accumulated from government funds through fraudulent means, “there’s no way he could deposit that in Philippine banks.”
The house design, Remulla said, and accounts from construction workers suggest the basement vault was intended for cash storage. Fire, after all, spreads upward. So the money was to be kept at the lowest point of the house, fully waterproofed, to survive both flames and floods. “They made it water proof to make it safe,” Remulla added.