Ranking congressmen have refuted Zaldy Co's allegation that Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez threatened to shoot him, saying it's not within Romualdez's personality to be violent.

House Deputy Speaker Antipolo City 1st district Rep. Ronaldo "Ronnie" Puno and Assistant Majority Leader Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong gave this reaction Monday, Nov. 17, or a day after Co released "Part 3" of his tell-all video series on alleged corruption in the Marcos administration.

"You're talking about our party president (Romualdez)...Wag po natin itong gawin na plataporma ng drama, na kumbaga soap opera (Let’s not make this into a platform for drama, like some kind of soap opera)," Adiong said in a press conference.

"This only happened in movies...Baka sobrang tagal na niya sa ibang bansa, wala na siyang ginagawa at nanonood na lang ng Netflix (Maybe he’s been abroad for so long, he has nothing else to do and just watches Netflix)," the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), said of Co, a former Ako-Bicol Party-list representative.

Poiting to Romualdez, Adiong said: "All of us can tesitify na (that) he has no inch of violence in his system...walang kabayo-bayolente itong taong na ito (this person has zero tendency to become violent). I can say that, for someone who has been working closely [with him]. I think DS Puno can also say that."

"Wala pong bayolente sa sistema ng former speaker (There's no violence in the system of the former speaker). That's why the entire House voted him twice as a Speaker, dahil alam po namin kung gaano po yung ka-steady ng kanyang leadership, at yung serbisyo po niya (That’s why the entire House voted him twice as Speaker, because we know how steady his leadership is, and the service he gives)," added th Mindanaoan.

Puno agreed with Adiong, but expressed even more disdain toward Co, who churned out his video exposés while in hiding abroad.

For Puno, Co's allegations against Romualdez simply aren't worth dignifying with a response.

"Speaker Martin Romualdez can talk for himself, no. Pero parang ang layo, sabi nga nila eh. Wala sa personalidad ni Speaker Martin yun eh, [ni] former Speaker Martin na magpapabaril ng tao. Ano yun?" the deputy speaker said.

(But it seems so far-fetched, as they say. It’s not in Speaker Martin’s personality—nor in former Speaker Martin’s—to have someone shot. What is that?)

"I mean an accusation like that is so bad, na kung talagang walang kabase-base naman, siguro wag na lang patulan, hindi ba?...siguro naman salain din natin yung dapat paniwalaan natin (and if it really has no basis, maybe we shouldn’t entertain it, don’t you think?… Maybe we should also filter what we choose to believe)," said the National Unity Party (NUP) chairman.

On Sunday, Co--a former House Committee on Appropriations chairman--uploaded his third video measage in as many days.

“March 2025 pa lang, si Speaker [Romualdez] ay nagpaparinig na sa akin sa aming meeting that he will shoot me if I will talk. At pagkatapos niyang sabihin sa akin in a phone call na, ‘Don’t come home, we will take care of you,’ tumawag ulit si Speaker Martin at sinabihan niya ako pag umuwi ako, will be dangerous kasi they might hire someone to do a robout on me or hire the police to kill me while in jail,” Co said in Part 3.

(As early as March 2025, Speaker [Romualdez] was already hinting to me in our meeting that he would shoot me if I talked. And after he told me in a phone call, “Don’t come home, we will take care of you,” Speaker Martin called again and told me that if I came home, it would be dangerous because they might hire someone to do a rubout on me or hire the police to kill me while in jail.)