Filipino president says ex-MP being held in Czech Republic

A former Philippine congressman who fled the country and had his passport cancelled after being charged in a corruption scandal over flood control projects has been detained in the Czech Republic, President Ferdinand Marcos said Friday.

The alleged crime, believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, sparked protests and arrests across the storm-battered archipelago, which was hit by hundreds of floods last year alone according to United Nations data.

Elizaldy Co was charged alongside a number of public works officials and construction firm owners in November, accused of violating the country's anti-graft law over a flood control project in the central Philippines.

"Co was stopped at the German border after entering from the Czech Republic," Marcos said in an update posted on X on Friday.

"He was denied entry and returned to Czech authorities, where he remains in custody."

In an earlier post on Facebook, Marcos said Co was detained in Prague "after crossing into the Czech Republic without proper documentation".

Manila was "in close coordination with the Czech government to ensure that all legal processes are followed and to arrange for his return to the Philippines at the soonest possible time."

Co, who quit the House of Representatives in September amid the scandal, later went into hiding and began releasing videos he said proved Marcos himself was the mastermind behind the corruption.

The government cancelled Co's passport in December.

Officials pledged the charges against Co would be the "first of many cases brought", as state prosecutors have yet to bring charges against other senators and congressmen implicated in the scam.

A special commission formed by Marcos in September has since been disbanded, with the president saying that "much of their work has already been done".

Marcos has consistently denied any connection to the scandal, noting it was he who brought the issue centre state in a national address.

The furore surrounding the fraud soon swept up friend and foe alike, including a congressman cousin of Marcos who stepped down as speaker of the House of Representatives in the face of the allegations against him.

The Philippines has a long history of scandals involving public funds, in which high-ranking politicians found guilty of corruption have typically escaped serious jail time. 

AFP