Two officials of a construction firm allegedly owned by former Ako Bicol partylist congressman Zaldy Co have expressed intention to surrender after they were included in the arrest warrant for graft and malversation charges in connection with the anomalous flood control project in Oriental Mindoro.

Police Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the two officials of Sunwest Construction and Development Corp. were among the seven accused who remain at large.

When the arrest warrant was issued and some of those in the charge sheet were arrested, Morico said the two started communicating with the police and sending surrender feelers.

“We must understand that three of those in the arrest warrant are in the country. Although they hold high positions in the company (Sunwest), they are just dummies so basically, they do not have the money and the capacity to pay for lawyers for them,” said Morico in a press briefing.

“There are back channels and of course, they have no personal lawyers and apparently they were left on their own,” he added.

And this is the reason why the two Sunwest officials are afraid and started communicating with them.

A total of 16 people were charged in connection with the flood control project in Oriental Mindoro, including Co and local officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Nine were already under government custody, including top DPWH regional officials. The cases leveled against them are non-bailable.

Of the seven remaining accused, Morico said four of them are out of the country, including Co while the three, all of them connected to Sunwest, are in the country.

Of the four who are abroad, three of them are Sunwest officials while the remaining DPWH official was last monitored to be in Israel.

“We are closely coordinating with the Immigration. I think there is an effort also from the government to cancel their passports,” said Morico.