HOUSE Committee on Infrastructure Co-Chairperson Terry Ridon of the Bicol Saro Party-list on Tuesday welcomed the ruling of the Manila Regional Trial Court confirming that the affidavit of Orly Regala Guteza was forged.
This ruling is a decisive vindication of fact over fiction,” Ridon said. “It reveals how falsehoods were deliberately engineered to mislead official inquiries and poison public discourse.”
In its October 24, 2025 resolution, Executive Judge Carolina C. Icasiano-Sison ruled that Guteza failed to rebut the presumption that he authored the forged notarization of the Sinumpaang Salaysay. The court cleared Atty. Petchie Rose Espera, whose notarial details were falsified, and ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Guteza and all others who used or circulated the forged document.
Ridon urged the DOJ to “immediately implement the court’s directive and prosecute all those responsible for this calculated falsification.”
“This was no clerical mistake — it was a premeditated attempt to subvert truth and derail a Senate inquiry,” Ridon said. “The DOJ must act decisively so that political forgery never again finds refuge in impunity.”
He said the court’s decision restores integrity to institutional processes and vindicates those who had been unjustly maligned.
“Our legislative inquiries — in both the Senate and the House — depend on the authenticity of every document submitted,” Ridon said. “When fabricated evidence is used to manipulate proceedings, it is not just an attack on individuals but on Congress itself.”
“Our democracy cannot thrive on deceit,” he added. “Those who forged, spread, or exploited false documents must be held fully accountable — before the law and before the people.”
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