‘Finding balyena’: Ridon nukes VP Duterte camp’s ‘fishing expedition’ argument with whale-sized retort

Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said the records being sought involve about P6.7 billion in total financial transactions, including roughly P4.4 billion in alleged inflows into the Vice President’s bank accounts over a 20-year period.

“Ang posisyon ng depensa ay this is a mere fishing expedition. Ang totoo ho, wala hong fishing expedition kung balyena ‘yung nahanap,” Ridon said during the Saturday News Forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City.

(The defense’s position is that this is a mere fishing expedition. The truth is, there is no fishing expedition if what is found is a whale.)

The bank and tax records, which include those from the Vice President’s husband lawyer Manases Carpio, are said to be crucial in proving allegations of unexplained wealth against the respondent.

The chairperson of the House Committee on Public Accounts said the transactions involved were far too substantial to dismiss as a speculative search for evidence.

“Hindi naman ho barya-barya ang pera eh. Pinag-uusapan ho natin dito, P6.7 billion in total transactions over the course of 20 years,” Ridon said. (This is not small change. What we are talking about here is P6.7 billion in total transactions over the course of 20 years).

“Pinag-uusapan ho natin dito, P4.4 billion in inflows into the bank accounts of the Duterte-Carpio couple over the course of 20 years,” he added, in an attempt to give an idea of the scale of the controversy.

(What we are talking about here is P4.4 billion in inflows into the bank accounts of the Duterte-Carpio couple over the course of 20 years.)

“Malalaking pera po yung pinag-uusapan natin na hindi ho ma-imagine ng ating pong mga kababayan paano po ito nangyari,” he added.

(We are talking about large sums of money that our countrymen cannot imagine how this happened).

The Senate impeachment court is set to hear additional arguments on Monday, July 20 on the prosecution’s request to subpoena the Duterte-Carpio couple’s bank records, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) documents and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) records.

The defense has argued that the request amounts to a fishing expedition and that records predating Duterte’s term as Vice President are beyond the scope of the impeachment case.

Ridon disagreed, saying the impeachment court must establish a financial baseline dating back to Duterte’s years as Davao City’s vice mayor before it can fairly determine whether she accumulated unexplained wealth.

“Mahalaga po na mabuo ho natin ‘yung kabuuang litrato mula po nung nag-umpisa siya bilang vice mayor sa Davao City, naging mayor, at naging vice president,” he said. (It is important that we build the complete picture from the time she started as vice mayor of Davao City, became mayor, and then vice president).

He said examining only Duterte’s years as Vice President would not provide a complete picture of her finances.

“Hindi ho tayo pwedeng magkaroon ng credible na pagtingin sa unexplained wealth or sa explainable wealth ng ating pong Pangalawang Pangulo kung ang pagbabatayan lang po natin ay ‘yung kasalukuyang mga taon ng termino,” Ridon said. (We cannot have a credible view of the unexplained wealth or explainable wealth of our Vice President if we only base it on the current years of her term).

Ridon said he remains optimistic that the Senate impeachment court will grant the prosecution’s subpoena requests during Monday’s hearing. — Ellson Quismorio