AGRICULTURE Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. on Thursday rebuked former congressman Zaldy Co, branding the latest corruption allegations of the ex-legislator as a “fabricated lie” crafted to divert public attention from the mounting legal troubles he faces over a controversial flood-control project.
In a sharply worded statement, Tiu Laurel said Co’s accusations run counter to the marching orders given to him by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who—during a September 2023 meeting at the presidential residence—formally appointed him Agriculture Secretary and instructed him to “clean it up” and “do what you have to do.”
“That was the directive: clean up the Department of Agriculture. So I immediately began researching and investigating all these allegations of corruption and illicit practices,” he said, adding that the DA’s intensified reforms have likely antagonized individuals who once held sway over import allocations.
Tiu Laurel then detailed his encounters with Co across several major agricultural commodities, beginning with sugar.
He recalled that in early March 2024, Co invited him to Polo Townhomes in Makati City to introduce a major sugar importer seeking a 200,000 MT sugar import allocation for the year. “I was shocked by the size of the request,” he said. He immediately consulted Sugar Regulatory Administration head Pablo Azcona, and days later the DA issued Sugar Order No. 2—a revamped allocation system meant to eliminate favoritism. “That order became the basis for rejecting the request,” he said. The total sugar import allocation for 2024 was 280,000 MT.
Turning to onions, Tiu Laurel traced the 2023 price surge to a supply-and-demand collapse rooted in October 2022, when the Bureau of Plant Industry reported critically low stocks and pushed for urgent importation—recommendations that were left unacted upon. Prices eventually soared to as high as P700 per kilo.
At the time, Tiu Laurel, then part of the Private Sector Advisory Council for Agriculture and still active in the cold chain industry, corroborated the shortage through his own network. “If large-scale smuggling happened then, prices would not have shot up like that. And no sensible businessman would hoard onions at the peak of a price spike,” he said.
He also dismissed as baseless the rumors linking presidential brother-in-law Martin Araneta to onion importation. “In my two years as Secretary of Agriculture, he has never made a single importation request—unlike Zaldy Co,” he added.
Tiu Laurel further debunked Co’s claim that he recommended importing 13 million MT of rice in 2024. “That volume would kill our farmers—it equals 20 million MT of palay, our entire national production,” he said. He added that Co had actually pushed for a zero-percent tariff on rice imports—a proposal rejected by both him and then–Finance Secretary Ralph Recto.
He also described as “absurd” Co’s claim that he halted a Quinta Committee hearing by producing a confidential report implicating First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos in controlling rice importation. “This is a fabricated lie. The First Lady has never meddled in DA matters,” he said. Quintacom co-chair and House agriculture committee chair Rep. Mark Enverga supported him, calling Co’s narrative “illogical and absurd.”
Discussing fish imports, Tiu Laurel reiterated that Co personally sought import allocations covering 3,000 containers for his nominated companies—a request he denied under the DA’s new transparent system. “After refusing him twice, I felt his resentment. He began undermining me,” he said.
He added that Co’s latest allegations formed “the newest episode in the former congressman’s self-made Netflix series,” referring to what he called Co’s pattern of dramatic and misleading accusations.
Tiu Laurel concluded with a stinging rebuke: “He pretends to care for farmers and consumers, but his greed is clear. Zaldy Co, come home and face your cases. That is what the Filipino people demand.”
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