VICE President Sara Duterte has filed a second perjury complaint against Ramil Madriaga, who has claimed to be her former aide and “bagman.”
Accompanied by her legal counsel, Paolo Panelo, Duterte filed the complaint with the Taguig City Prosecutor’s Office on Monday, August 17, 2026.
Panelo said the complaint “thoroughly exposes” Madriaga’s “malicious and deliberate falsehoods,” supported by sworn testimonies from Duterte herself and 12 corroborating witnesses.
He said government and other official documents and certifications, as well as contemporaneous messages, photographs and public records, were also included in Duterte’s complaint.
“This exhaustive effort was technically unnecessary given the absurd and unverifiable nature of Madriaga’s claims, and the fact that the details and few pieces of evidence he supplied immediately and publicly collapsed under the slightest scrutiny,” Panelo said in a statement.
“However, it had to be done to ensure that Madriaga is held accountable under the law, and to unmask the malicious, baseless and desperate character of the impeachment effort against the Vice President and of those behind it,” he added.
In March, Duterte filed her first perjury complaint against Madriaga in connection with an affidavit he submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman, in which he narrated various activities he claimed to have carried out for the Dutertes.
Madriaga has been detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City since 2023 in connection with a kidnap-for-ransom case.
In an affidavit submitted to the House Committee on Justice, Madriaga claimed that Duterte’s husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, was linked to the controversial 2018 shipment of magnetic lifters that were found to contain billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs.
Madriaga also claimed that he was used as a conduit for millions of pesos in bank transactions involving several people close to former President Rodrigo Duterte, including funds he said were intended for “intelligence operations” and money laundering.
He further claimed that Pharmally Pharmaceuticals and former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang were among those who provided financial support for the Vice President’s 2022 campaign.
Madriaga also alleged that the Dutertes were involved in a plot to unseat and assassinate President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
He further claimed that the P125 million in confidential funds of the Department of Education (DepEd) was disposed of in less than 24 hours upon the Vice President’s orders, when she was also serving as Education secretary. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)