Ridon nukes Estrada with Napoles callback; asks NPC if senator's post breached his privacy
At A Glance
- Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon clapped back at Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Thursday, Sept. 11 over the latter's Facebook post with a reference to the infamous Janet Lim Napoles pork barrel scam case.
Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon (left), Senator Jinggoy Estrada (Facebook)
Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon clapped back at Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Thursday, Sept. 11 over the latter's Facebook post with a reference to the infamous Janet Lim Napoles pork barrel scam case.
The tit-for-tat between the two lawmakers began on Wednesday, Sept. 10 when Estrada posted yearbook photos of both Ridon and former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) assistant engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez.
The senator captioned his post "Safe kaya tayo sa kanila? (Are we safe from them?)," while heavily insinuating that Ridon and Hernandez knew each other through his hashtags #BatchmateSila (They're batchmates) and #InvestigationOReunion (Investigation or reunion).
Just a day earlier, on Sept. 9, Hernandez implicated Senators Estrada and Joel Villanueva in alleged corruption via flood control project-related anomalies. Ridon chaired the House panel where Hernandez made his revelations.
On Thursday, Ridon countered with this post for Estrada: "Sexy 12 years old lang ako dyan linabas mo pa yung address ng bahay ng lola ko (Sexy I was just 12 years old in that photo, you even exposed my grandmother’s address).
Ridon tagged the National Privacy Commission (NPC), as if to flag a privacy breach on the part of Estrada in connection with his yearbook photo.
It can be recalled that Estrada's codename in Napoles' ledger was "sexy". Napoles is the mastermind of the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam.
Privacy law violation?
The House Infrastructure Committee (infra comm) chairman would further flesh out his concern during the budget hearing of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Thursday night. The NPC was represented in the hearing, since it was an attached agency of the DICT.
"Last night senator Jinggoy Estrada made a post...in which he maliciously linked me to Brice Hernandez, who is the whistleblower for the Bulacan flood control case and actually named Sen. Jinggoy Estrada as one of the senators who should be accountable for all of these ghost and substandard projects in Bulacan," Ridon told NPC Deputy Commissioner John Henry Naga in a recap.
In doing so, Estrada committed "very specific, particular disclosure of information", according to Ridon, a lawyer.
"First, which is my name, second my birthday, and third which is our telephone number, and last would be my grandmother’s address. So I’m asking you as the NPC, do you think this would constitute as a violation of the privacy act?" he asked.
"If you feel aggrieved by the post," Naga began to answer, to which Ridon butted in, "Yes, I feel aggrieved."
Naga then continued: "You may file with the [NPC] so that we will be able to look into all the possible privacy violation on your part your honor."
When Ridon asked what would happen if the senator from San Juan simply took down his Facebook post, Naga said, "Still, the aggrieved party may still file with the [NPC], especially sir that you have a screenshot of the posting."
The congressman ended the topic by saying, "Hopefully, the good senator would take it down in the soonest time so we could focus on the more important matters on flood control instead of us fighting about who these kids are."