Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. has given more details about his fellow nominee Rep. Zaldy Co's medical status.

“Nasa Amerika po siya. Una naghatid siya ng kanyang anak, nag-aaral po kasi sa isang unibersidad doon. At pangalawa, in time na rin sa kanyang extensive check-up po sa Estados Unidos,” Garbin said in a radio interview Friday, Sept. 5.

(He is in America. First, he brought his child there, who is studying at a university. And second, it coincides with his extensive medical check-up in the United States.)

Garbin affirmed reports that Co had a travel authority from the House of Representatives' leadership. However, he doesn't know when his Ako Bicol colleague would come back.

“When he resigned from the chair of the Committee on Appropriations, talagang palagi na siyang nasa abroad sa kadahilanan nga na meron siyang heart ailment. Palagi na siyang nagpapacheck-up (he has contracted a heart ailment and he has been abroad most of the time because of this. He is always having a check-up),” he said.

“And in fact, when I talked to him yesterday, sabi niya yung doktor niya, found out na 90/60 (he said his doctor found out that his blood pressure was at 90/60), and the doctor said that we need an extensive check-up on your heart,” added the lawyer-legislator

Garbin said his co-nominee had been going to different countries since February in order to seek a second opinion about his medical condition. Singapore is one such country.

"Hindi naman ho sinasabi niyang hindi siya uuwi, as of yet hindi pa natin alam kung kailan siya makaka-uwi (He's not saying that he will never come back home, but as of yet we don't know when he will return)," he noted.

Co was the appropriations panel chairman during the 19th Congress. He resigned from this post in January 2025, shortly after the current P6.326-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) was signed.