Razon vs Barzaga

One is a quiet billionaire who likes to stay away from the limelight while the other is a neophyte lawmaker spinning his own orbit on social media.

Suspended lawmaker Kiko Barzaga has thrown the gauntlet and ports and gaming tycoon Enrique Razon, the country’s richest man, picked it up without hesitation.

The result is a brewing confrontation in this cold and typically quiet early part of the year – a storm which the characteristically frenetic Barzaga brought upon himself.

“These wild charges are the products of a fevered imagination angling for media attention,” Razon said in the 17-page cyberlibel complaint he filed against Barzaga following the Cavite congressman’s corruption accusations against the tycoon.

Razon’s response

Here are excerpts from the complaint Razon filed, a copy of which I obtained.

“I am a businessman by profession. I have, over the past five decades, painstakingly and conscientiously built and nurtured my name and reputation in the Philippines and abroad. I hold my name and reputation dear,” Razon said.

“Respondent Barzaga has done my reputation harm, and for this reason he should be penalized. I thus seek redress for the injury to my name and reputation caused by the false, reckless and malicious statements of respondent Barzaga on his social media platform.

“I have suffered mental anguish, wounded feelings and acute embarrassment due to the false and malicious statements of respondent Barzaga. His online posts have had their intended and desired effect: the Facebook posts, which accuse me of committing the crimes of corruption and bribery, have tended to discredit and dishonor my name and reputation.”

The posts in question

Post 1. On Jan. 9, 2026, Barzaga posted on his Facebook page:

“Enrique Razon is the mastermind behind the corruption in Congress (sic), I will disclose everything in a speech once I return on the first week of February.”

Post 2. Later the same day, Barzaga wrote:

“NUP Congressmen received bribes from Enrique Razon in various gatherings in Solaire prior to the 2025 elections in exchange for supporting speaker Martin Romualdez.”

Under the law, cyberlibel covers unlawful or prohibited acts of libel, committed through a computer system or other similar means. It is defined as a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, tending to cause the dishonor, discredit or contempt of a natural or juridical person or to blacken the memory of one who is dead.

The elements of libel are clear: defamatory, malicious and public.

Defamatory

“Respondent Barzaga’s imputations against me as being the ‘mastermind behind the corruption in Congress’ and as having ‘bribed NUP Congressmen’ are self-evidently defamatory,” Razon said.

An allegation is defamatory if it ascribes to another the commission of a crime, the possession of a vice or defect or any act, omission or circumstance that tends to dishonor, discredit or put the person in contempt.

“Here, respondent Barzaga explicitly imputed to me the crimes of corruption and bribery. His use of the hashtag ‘#IkulongSiRazon’ reinforces that he is accusing me of crimes – only those who commit crimes are imprisoned, yet he calls for my imprisonment as the supposed ‘mastermind behind the corruption in Congress’ who allegedly bribed NUP congressmen.”

Publicity

Barzaga published his defamatory statements on his Facebook page, which is accessible and viewable by the general public.

Razon said the posts have elicited “mindless and equally reckless comments and have been picked up by several news outlets.”

Malice

“The imputations are also patently malicious. Malice – defined as an act done in the spirit of mischief or with criminal indifference to the rights of others – is presumed in every defamatory statement, especially when it harms the reputation of the person defamed (Orillo v. People, G.R. No. 206905, 30 January 2023). Because the statements are defamatory, they are presumptively malicious; the mere fact that he made these imputations establishes malice,” Razon said.

He emphasizes that the accusations are false.

“I am not the mastermind behind corruption in Congress, and I have not bribed NUP congressmen or any member of Congress. He cannot prove these claims because they never happened; they are wild accusations born of a fevered imagination seeking media attention.”

Against this backdrop, Razon believes there is “prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction that Barzaga committed cyberlibel against me.”

For now, it’s a wait-and-see stance until the courts decide but kibitizers in business and politics already sense how this might turn out, given the clear elements of libel present.

Lawyer Wilfredo Garrido was on point when he said, “Barzaga was asking for it.”

As a side note, Razon filed the complaint against Barzaga and not against the media outlets and the journalists who picked up the lawmaker’s statements – a move I applaud as a journalist.

Now, if only everyone else is reasonable enough not to shoot the messengers.

Meanwhile, the duel is set, the courts will decide and the audience waits for the curtain to fall.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.