The hearing was convened by Sen. Pia Cayetano on Thursday, June 4,
2026 despite the parallel announcement by Sen. Erwin Tulfo, who
had been installed by the new Senate majority as Blue Ribbon chair
on June 3, that the panel's next session would be reset to Monday,
June 8. The Senate Secretariat and the official stenographers did
not attend the Cayetano-bloc proceeding; the Cayetano camp ran the
hearing with chamber personnel sympathetic to the bloc.
Eighteen retired Marines, most of them named by their counsel
Levito Baligod as former security personnel for ex-Ako Bicol
Party-list Representative Elizaldy "Zaldy" Co, gave sworn
testimony. The witnesses said they had personally delivered, on
average, sixty to seventy suitcases per week of cash from 2022
through 2025 to multiple addresses associated with named
officials. Each suitcase, depending on size, contained from P20
million to P70 million. The witnesses named President Marcos Jr.,
former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, and ex-Rep. Co among the
recipients, and during the day-long hearing added First Lady Liza
Araneta Marcos, presidential son Sandro Marcos, former Senate
President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, Sen. Erwin Tulfo (the newly
installed Blue Ribbon chair under the rival bloc), Sen. Panfilo
"Ping" Lacson, and former Sen. Leila de Lima to the list. One
ex-Marine described a Paoay, Ilocos Norte cash-drop run; another
described aircraft-borne suitcase transfers tied to the 2022
presidential campaign cycle.
The testimony elaborates the September 25, 2025 sworn account of
former Marines master sergeant Orly Guteza and the February 24,
2026 Club Filipino corroboration. It is the first time the alleged
delivery cadence (suitcases per week, year by year) has been
placed on the public Senate record by multiple witnesses in
testimony. The Tulfo-led Blue Ribbon faction characterized the
Cayetano-bloc proceeding as procedurally infirm; the Cayetano
camp asserts the Rules of the Senate require a thirteen-senator
majority to vacate her chairship and that the hearing therefore
stands.