Businessman Enrique Razon files cyberlibel complaint vs. Kiko Barzaga

Businessman Enrique Razon, the chair of port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), has filed a cyberlibel complaint against Cavite 4th District Rep. Kiko Barzaga over the lawmaker’s alleged false statements posted on his social media account.

Razon’s counsel, Atty. Laurence Arroyo, said the complaint is in relation to Barzaga’s January 9 Facebook post which read “NUP (National Unity Party) Congressmen received bribes from Enrique Razon in various gatherings in Solaire prior to the 2025 elections in exchange for supporting Speaker Martin Romualdez [of Leyte].”

Another January 9 Facebook post by Barzaga also cited in the complaint read, “Enrique Razon is the mastermind behind the corruption in Congress, (sic) I will disclose everything in a speech once I return in the first week of February #IkulongSiRazon.”

“The basis of this complaint is our position that what he said is false and malicious,” Arroyo told reporters.

Sought for comment, Barzaga said he is ready to face his accuser.

“I will face him in court,” Barzaga told GMA News Online.

Meanwhile, the posts have already been deleted from Barzaga's Facebook page.

In his cyberlibel complaint filed before the Makati City Prosecutors Office, Razon said that he became aware of Barzaga’s posts after he was informed of them by several of his friends and colleagues.

“While he may have already deleted his defamatory statements, the lies that he let loose have already taken flight and caused harm. The imputations by respondent Barzaga of “corruption” and “bribery” on my part are patently malicious,” Razon added. 

Further, Razon said that Barzaga’s Facebook posts are not protected political speech because they do not cover false and malicious statements. 

“I am not the “mastermind behind the corruption in Congress” and I have not bribed “NUP Congressmen” — or any Member of Congress for that matter. He cannot prove that I am the “mastermind behind the corruption in Congress” or that “NUP Congressmen received bribes” from me “in various gatherings in Solaire prior to the 2025 elections in exchange for supporting Speaker Martin Romualdez”—because these things simply never happened,” Razon said.

“These wild charges are the products of a fevered imagination angling for media attention… He is free to stultify himself before the public, but he is not free to tarnish and taint the good reputation of another,” Razon added.

NUP

House Deputy Speaker and NUP chairman Ronaldo “Ronnie” Puno also previously said that they will file charges against Barzaga, who is a former member of NUP and son of one its founding members, the late Cavite 4th District Rep. Elpidio Barzaga. 

“The allegations are baseless, reckless, and malicious... We will see him in court, since he chose to malign all members of the NUP—a party once led by his own father and one that he himself joined," said Puno. 

 Barzaga also previously maintained that his allegations have merit. 

“I will reveal the evidence once I return to Congress," Barzaga told GMA News Online. —with reports from Dano Tingcungco/ VAL, GMA Integrated News