THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed the inciting-to-sedition complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against Vice President Sara Duterte.
DOJ spokesperson Polo Martinez said the complaint was dismissed after the panel of prosecutors found no prima facie evidence with a reasonable certainty of conviction.
However, Martinez said a complaint for grave threats against Duterte was filed with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
“After the preliminary investigation, our prosecutors found prima facie evidence with a reasonable certainty of conviction to indict the Vice President for the crime of grave threats, again, through cyberspace,” Martinez said.
In a statement, Paul Lawrence Lim, Duterte’s counsel for the NBI complaints, expressed confidence that the charges against the Vice President will ultimately be dismissed.
“Equally important, as a sitting impeachable officer, the Vice President may not be prosecuted for an alleged offense that is also the subject of an impeachment case. Given these serious legal issues, the Vice President will exercise all available legal remedies in due course,” he said.
Article IV of the impeachment complaint alleges that Duterte committed grave threats against the first couple and Romualdez.
The two criminal complaints filed by the NBI against Duterte stemmed from her statements during an online press conference in the early hours of November 23, 2024.
In that online press conference, Duterte said she had already contracted someone to kill President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and then House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself were killed.
Throwing expletives at the Marcos couple and Romualdez, Duterte made the remarks after the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, which was investigating alleged irregularities in the use of funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), ordered the transfer of her chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, from the House of Representatives facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Lopez had been cited in contempt by the House panel over alleged “undue interference” in the ongoing investigation into the alleged use of ₱612.5 million in confidential funds by the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte’s tenure as DepEd Secretary.
Lopez, as OVP chief of staff, sent a letter to the Commission on Audit asking the agency not to comply with a House subpoena for certain audit documents. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)