Prosecutor Ridon to VP Sara: 'Good luck'

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Representative Terry Ridon of Bicol Saro party-list wished Vice President Sara Duterte "good luck," after she said he had a conflict of interest in his role as a House prosecutor in her impeachment trial.

“Good luck. Good luck to the Vice President. Because the end is near…the end is near, my friends, of the presentation of our evidence, just to be clear,” Ridon said on Tuesday.

Earlier that day, in a press conference in her hometown of Davao City, Duterte said Ridon had a conflict of interest because he used to be a consultant for the Davao city government’s anti-poverty initiatives.

Ridon disputed her claim of conflict of interest. saying that he was never a personal advisor to Duterte when she was the city's mayor.

“We performed the work required under the engagement and submitted the corresponding reports to the City Government. The consultancy was never subject to any audit disallowance, more than six years after the engagement concluded,” he said in a statement.

The prosecution is presenting evidence for Article 2 of the impeachment case against the Vice President, alleging unexplained wealth due to alleged failure to truthfully disclose assets in her SALN and failure to divest in businesses as required for the President and Vice President under a constitutional provision.

Ridon is one of the two lead prosecutors for Article 2 alongside Akbayan party-list Representative Chel Diokno.

“Tuloy-tuloy lang po kami. Wala po itong takot, wala itong pangamba. Tuloy-tuloy lang po ’yung paglalabas ng ebidensya ngayong linggo,” he said.

(We will soldier on. We are fearless and we have no doubts. Our presentation of evidence is unhampered.)

On Monday, Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified that there were P4.4 billion in covered and suspicious bank transactions recorded under the names of the Vice President and her husband Manases Carpio from 2007 to 2025.

Buenaventura also testified that Cale88 Foods Corp., which used to be one of the business interests of Carpio, also received P319.33 million in inward remittances from mainland China and Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, Buenaventura also said that the P319 million of onward remittances from mainland China and Hong Kong to Cale88 is part of the P1.2 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions recorded under Cale88 from 2022 to 2025.

Buenaventura also told the senator-judges that the three Cale88 transactions covering the P319-million remittance were reported as suspicious because there was “no underlying legal or trade obligation, purpose or economic justification.” — BM, GMA News