Ridon on Duterte's claim of conflict of interest: ‘So what?’

Public prosecutor Rep. Terry Ridon expressed that he was not affected with Vice President Sara Duterte mentioning that he was a former consultant of the Davao City government, denouncing claims that the matter constituted a conflict of interest due to his role in her impeachment.

“We confirm that I was consultant of the city government of Davao for a particular period from 2018 to 2020, but my question is, so what?” Ridon told reporters at the Senate.

“I did my job, and we submitted our reports until the conclusion of that engagement. And more importantly, I did not seek it, I was asked by one of her advisers to help and to provide services,” he added.

The lawmaker was responding to Duterte’s statements during a press conference in Davao City on Tuesday, coinciding with the 33rd day of her ongoing impeachment trial at the Senate.

There, the Vice President detailed how she had known about the matter for a long-time but deferred the disclosure of the information to the hands of the lawmaker.

“I’ve known it for a long-time, I did not forget that Terry Ridon worked for the City Government of Davao, I just didn’t disclose it because I want Terry Ridon to say that ‘I have a conflict of interest here because I worked as a consultant,’” Duterte explained.

“He was expelled, right, he was expelled from the PCUP…he was expelled from there, then he came crawling to a Davaoeno that he knew…he asked for help, maybe he had no more income,” she added.

During his time as city consultant, Duterte claimed that Ridon did not submit a single report for the whole time that he worked under the city government.

She further alleged that there was evidence at Davao’s City Treasurer Office that a lump sum was sent to Ridon’s Landbank account for his consultancy.

Duterte did not present any of the documents in the said press conference.

Ridon, for his part, refuted the claims, asserting that his reports were among the files of the Davao City government and that none of his engagements were flagged by the Commission on Audit or disallowed.

As for the matter of conflict of interest, the lawmaker said that his role as a prosecutor in the trial was far from the position he assumed in his previous job.

He stressed that had he known that Duterte had bank transactions amounting to P4.4 billion in a period of 20 years, he would not have taken the job in the first place.

“What does the Vice President want? Just because you were a consultant, we will plead to her? We will thank her because she helped my life? Is that the case? I don’t think so,” Ridon said.

Ridon maintained that he, along with members of the prosecution panel, would remain focused on the case and would not be distracted by the personal attacks being launched by their critics.

“Again, at the end of the day, the prosecution panel will not be distracted by this attack by the Vice President, we are in the middle of exposing unexplained wealth, we will never be distracted, we’ll continue on up until the very end,” he explained.

“Like we’ve always done, ma’am, here’s the tissue, wipe your tears because we feel your jitters this day,” he added.

Ridon currently leads Article II of the ongoing impeachment trial against the Vice President concerning her alleged unexplained wealth.