Castro clarifies Ruiz conflict of interest remarks

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro clarifies statements she made on Monday regarding reports alleging Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Jay Ruiz’s potential conflict of interest between his current position in the government and his past employment in a media agency, in which he was supposedly the co-founder.

“Okay. I just want to have a clarification. On my previous statement about the alleged ownership of Secretary Jay of Digital 8… I don’t want it to get twisted by vloggers, so I really want to clarify this,” she said.

She mentioned that a question was posed during a press briefing on Monday. She explained that she did not name a particular company but confirmed that any government appointee is allotted 60 days to divest any investments made prior to their government position.

“My answer was—it’s very general, our law allows us to divest shares, interest in any company that he owns before he assumes the position. And he knows the law – everything we do here must be in accordance with the law,” referring to Ruiz as she answered the queries of the media.

“So, I neither confirmed nor denied any if there is any ownership or shares or interest Secretary Jay has over this Digi8. I never mentioned the word Digi8 as a matter of fact. It’s very general: Any company that he owns,” she added.

Castro issued this clarification during a press briefing on Wednesday to prevent her statements from being “misquoted.”

“So, there are some vloggers I don’t know [about the] other media. I will not consider it as misquoted because there might be a misunderstanding but if you will just read the lines or listen to the words I said, it’s very clear – everyone must divest within 60 days in any company he or she has shares,” she said.

“So, with Digital 8, I did not say anything about the Digi8. So, I just want to have it cleared because this can be used as if we have conflicting statements on the alleged Digi8. That’s all,” she stressed.

On Monday afternoon, the PCO released a statement that seemingly refuted Castro’s earlier statements, stressing that Ruiz has no conflict of interest and called articles claiming so “false, inaccurate, and misleading.”

On Tuesday, Ruiz faced the media and addressed the allegations against him, calling it “fake news” and part of a “demolition job” against him.

When asked to further expand on his alleged involvement with Digi8, a company he said he represented, he referred to the previous statements he made on Tuesday.