DEPARTMENT of the Interior and Local Government Secretary (DILG) Jonvic Remulla has dismissed as “drama” Vice President Sara Duterte’s claims of harassment and her account of the circumstances surrounding the service of an arrest warrant against her.
At a press briefing on Monday, September 7, 2026, Remulla vehemently denied Duterte’s claim that she and her family were harassed in connection with the service of the warrant issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) over three counts of grave threats.
Remulla presented videos showing Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) personnel, mostly women, serving the arrest warrant at the Office of the Vice President in Mandaluyong City and at Duterte’s residence in San Juan City.
“Just to clarify the narrative. She said that she was harassed, that she did not trust the Philippine National Police or the DILG. As you can see in the service of the warrants, there was no SWAT, there was no armed component. The women, as you can see, were all unarmed. They were duly accepted into the residence and into the office,” he said.
“So any thoughts of harassment during the service are totally untrue. We dare them to present any CCTV that they have in their office and their residence of the harassment that (supposedly) went on in the service of the warrant. The truth will always bear us out. We have videos showing our precise actions. If they have anything to counter this, we ask them to present it,” he added.
Remulla said the CIDG coordinated with the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) as early as Friday afternoon, immediately after receiving the arrest warrant issued by the QC RTC.
CIDG Director Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II said a VPSPG representative initially informed them that Duterte was not inclined to post bail and instead wanted to be incarcerated.
Morico said Duterte’s camp asked where she would be detained if she chose not to post bail.
“I told him that since there is time for the VP to post bail because it’s a bailable offense, we could escort her after all the booking procedures that will be conducted at the CIDG headquarters. We would then escort her to the Quezon City RTC,” Morico said.
“But I was informed by the VPSPG that she didn’t want to post bail and wanted to be incarcerated. So they asked where the jail facility was. I told the VPSPG, Major Nabua and his commanding officer, over the phone, that I would not commit the Vice President to a jail facility. She would instead be placed in a conference room because we have to afford all the necessary respect due to her office,” he added in a mix of Tagalog and English.
Morico said authorities also explained the available facilities and arrangements to Duterte’s camp.
“I told them that what we have is just a simple folding bed. They were also concerned about the food, so I told them that what we could provide was what CIDG could afford, which would be either Jollibee or McDonald’s, but they could bring their own food,” he said.
Remulla suggested that Duterte’s camp may have been concerned about the optics of her being detained in a regular jail.
“She wanted to be incarcerated immediately. She wanted the high drama of being locked up here. She wanted to show that she was handcuffed,” he said.
“She wanted to be handcuffed, she wanted to sleep here, she wanted to be seen inside the bars. She even asked what the room looked like. When we told her that the room was air-conditioned and actually quite nice, it seemed that she changed her mind. The picture she wanted to come out in the media was of her behind bars. But she does not deserve that. It is a bailable offense,” Remulla added in Tagalog.
Duterte eventually posted bail amounting to P360,000 for the three counts of grave threats at the Quezon City RTC Branch 98 on Saturday, September 5. The court had set bail at P120,000 for each count. 
The charges stem from Duterte’s remarks during an online press conference on November 23, 2024, in which she said that she had 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.
The remarks came amid Duterte’s anger over the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s investigation into alleged irregularities in the use of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.
At the time, the committee had ordered the transfer of Duterte’s chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, from the House of Representatives’ detention facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City after she was cited in contempt over alleged “undue interference” in the congressional investigation.
Lopez was later brought to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center after the House order to transfer her to the correctional facility.
Duterte subsequently directed expletives at the Marcos couple and Romualdez, accusing them of putting her staff in danger amid what she described as a political demolition campaign against her.
Before proceeding to QC-RTC Branch 98 on Saturday to post bail, Duterte stopped at the entrance of the Quezon City Hall of Justice, where she expressed fears for her life and the safety of her family.
She raised concerns over the presence of armed police officers deployed at the building to maintain peace and order in anticipation of her arrival.
Duterte also expressed distrust of her security detail, saying it had been provided by the Marcos administration.
She asked to be accompanied by several journalists as she proceeded to the courtroom.
Remulla challenged Duterte to submit to the PNP the “documented threats” she claimed to have received for proper action.
He also noted that Duterte has about 400 security personnel.
In a statement issued Monday, Duterte said she had received information as early as 2024 about what she described as the administration’s plans against her.
She said these included the arrest of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, following the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court in connection with its investigation into alleged crimes against humanity linked to the Philippines’ drug war.
Duterte said she shared the information with then-Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.
“Above all, I asked that my mother and children be respected and protected, and that they not be dragged into or threatened by anything that may be done to me,” Duterte said in Tagalog.
“The act of approaching or going to places where my mother and children are staying, despite the admission of the DILG secretary and the police that they knew where I was because of their surveillance activities, is a serious matter, especially when minors are dragged into or affected by it. Children should not be used, threatened, or dragged into harassment. This is child abuse,” she added.
/TPM