Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon – Photo courtesy of Terry Ridon/Facebook
Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon called on former Presidential Legislative Liaison Office undersecretary Adrian Bersamin to publicly address allegations involving supposed exchanges with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on budget kickbacks.
Ridon said the claims lacked credibility without direct confirmation from Bersamin, stressing that secondhand accounts could not be treated as factual.
“They have no probative value, they have no evidentiary value, whether in court, in impeachment proceedings or congressional inquiries,” Ridon said.
He added that “until and unless” Bersamin personally verified or denied the alleged communications, there was no sound basis for Congress or investigative bodies to act on them.
Ridon issued the statement after ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said he had seen records of communications allegedly exchanged between Bersamin and Marcos from December 2024 to July 2025 that purportedly showed presidential awareness of anomalous budget insertions.
Tinio said the materials were shown to him by Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, who earlier took a leave from the House amid controversy surrounding his criticism of the Department of Public Works and Highways budget and disclosures linked to the so-called Cabral Files.
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice separately said he also viewed the same records, which were described as including text messages, phone identifiers, and video footage, while Tinio claimed one exchange referred to a reported multibillion-peso delivery allegedly acknowledged by the president.