A member of the Philippine National Police filed a complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, the head of her security detail and several others for direct assault, disobedience and grave coercion over recent disruptions at the House of Representatives Detention Center and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
Presidential adviser on poverty alleviation Larry Gadon, for his part, asked the Supreme Court to initiate a motu proprio disbarment proceeding against Duterte for her kill threat against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Duterte, in a press conference yesterday, said her office will file counter-charges against the PNP.
“Initially, we are filing charges against them as well for disobedience, for kidnapping and for robbery,” she said.
The Vice President likewise questioned the subpoena issued by the National Bureau of Investigation for possible violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
“I find it laughable that they are looking at possible violations of the Anti-Terrorism Law. They are trying to reach whatever properties and assets I have. This is the playbook they used on Rep. Arnie Teves Jr. – they want me charged, they want to cancel my passport, to have a red notice issued so I cannot move abroad, to have anti-money laundering violations so I cannot access my assets,” she said.
She insisted that her statement that she contracted someone to kill the First Couple and the Speaker should something happen to her was “not actionable.”
“There is no active threat if I am not dead. There is nothing illegal with what I said,” Duterte said.
For his part, police doctor Van Jason Villamor of the PNP Health Service filed his complaint against Duterte, the head of her security detail Col. Raymund Lachica, and several other members of her security team before Office of the City Prosecutor in Quezon City
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said Villamor, assigned to the Quezon City Police District, “was specifically instructed to assist the patient (Duterte’s chief of staff Zuelika Lopez) and will be brought together to the VMCC.”
“But he (Villamor) was shoved away by Col. Lachica. This — we cannot let this pass. This obviously can qualify to a case of direct assault because he is also a public officer,” Fajardo said.
She played a video showing Villamor being shoved by Lachica during the transfer of Lopez to VMMC.
“It is clear in our laws that if you are a public officer and you lay hands against agents of a person of authority, whose presence there is by virtue of his performance of his official duty. He was directed to assist the patient and yet he received some cursing but he exercised self-restraint but you can see in the video that he (Lachica) pushed him (Villamor),” she said.
Maj. Jackson Cases from the House of Representatives and Capt. Roque Garcia and Staff Sgt. Agapito Arroyo from the QCPD were named by Villamor as his witnesses.
For his part, Gadon – a disbarred lawyer – cited the slew of expletives Duterte spewed during her press conference as well as the threats she issued.
“The statements of the Vice President were immature, and very lacking in statesmanship…She is totally detached from reality,” he told reporters after filing his complaint.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated. Originally posted with the headline “PNP readies possible charges against VP Duterte, security personnel.”
