Philippine agency recommends charges against VP Duterte over Marcos ‘threat’

The Philippines’ top investigative agency is recommending that Vice President Sara Duterte be charged for an alleged threat she made against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by openly talking about having him and two others assassinated.

The potential charges that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed with the Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) are separate from the upcoming impeachment trial of Duterte, a former ally of Marcos and daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte. The Senate could convene as an impeachment court in July.

It’s now up to the DOJ to decide whether to conduct a preliminary investigation and bring charges via the courts against Duterte – the first vice president in the Philippines to be impeached. 

Duterte committed one count of inciting to sedition and three counts of grave threats, the NBI alleges. If convicted of the potential charges, the vice president could face penalties, including imprisonment.

“The vice president’s threatening statements disrupted peace,” NBI Director Jaime Santiago told a press briefing on Wednesday as the bureau announced that it was recommending charges against Duterte, based on an agency investigation over the past several months.

“It is now in the DOJ’s court whether they will see merits in our findings or they will dismiss it,” Santiago said.

In November, Duterte publicly said that she had hired someone to target Marcos as well as first lady Liza Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez – President Marcos’ cousin – in the event she might herself be killed in an assassination plot. 

Duterte later said that her statement was taken out of context. 

In response to the NBI’s announcement, Duterte said she was not expecting fair treatment under the justice department of the Marcos administration, as she pointed to the president’s recent statement describing her remarks as inciting “criminal” acts.

“As expected,” Duterte said in a brief statement on Wednesday. “You can see the President’s message, stating that he will not tolerate such criminal acts. This shows that the President’s pronouncements already carry a certain bias.”

The DOJ said it assigned the case to prosecutors who would determine whether a case could go to court with a “certainty of conviction.”

“The case will undergo case buildup as needed to assure that there is sufficient evidence and that the respondent is not unduly hauled to court,” the department said in a statement. 

Inciting to sedition are statements “that pose a real and imminent threat to public order, regardless of whether actual unrest occurs” while grave threats refer to statements that create “real and imminent danger to specific persons, regardless of whether actual harm occurs,” the DOJ said.

“The law does not require that an unlawful act be carried out – only that the statement was made with the intent to stir public unrest or disrupt stability,” it added.

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Last week, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Duterte for alleged constitutional violations, plotting to assassinate Marcos, corruption, and other high crimes. Duterte has denied any wrongdoing and blamed her political foes for the issues against her. 

If the Senate – sitting as an impeachment court – convicts Duterte, she will be removed as vice president and be perpetually disqualified from holding any office.

Marcos, Duterte’s running mate in the 2022 national elections, has distanced himself from the impeachment proceedings against Duterte. However, his cousin, Romualdez, and his eldest son, Congressman Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, were among House members who endorsed the complaint against the vice president.

On Monday, Senate President Francis Escudero said the impeachment trial could begin after Marcos delivered his annual speech before Congress on July 21. 

Congress is currently on a break ahead of the midterm elections in May, and will not resume sessions until June 2 – a month after new senators would have been elected.

Half of the 24-member Senate, which will decide the vice president’s fate, is up for grabs in the May 12 polls.

Duterte’s impeachment marked a dramatic turn. It blew up an already wide-open feud that doomed a once formidable alliance between the politically influential Marcoses and Dutertes during the 2022 general election.

The alliance between Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte – both the children of ex-presidents – ended acrimoniously amid pressure on the government to allow an international investigation into the deadly drug war waged by Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. 

After an all-out feud broke out with President Marcos, Sara Duterte said she was planning to run for president in 2028. 

Jojo Riñoza in Manila contributed to this report.