VP Sara sued for sedition, grave threats

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 12 Feb) — The National Bureau of Investigation has filed a complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte recommending the filing of charges for inciting to sedition and grave threats.

In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Justice said it has received the complaint, which will undergo evaluation and preliminary investigation before the National Prosecution Service.

The case against Duterte stems from her comments in November last year suggesting that she had ordered someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the First Lady, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she herself was killed amid an escalating political conflict between her and the President.

Duterte, who was impeached last Wednesday, later denied that her statement amounted to a threat.

“Common sense should be enough for us to understand and accept that a supposed conditional act of revenge does not constitute an active threat,” she said.

The alleged grave threats were cited as one of the bases of the impeachment complaint against the vice president and labeled as “culpable violation of the Constitution” in the seven Articles of Impeachment that were submitted to the Senate before it went into a break for the election period.

Asked during a press conference last Friday if she was considering resignation to preempt a conviction that would make her ineligible to run for president in 2028, Duterte refused to give a categorical reply.

The vice president’s rating has declined since the congressional investigations into the alleged misuse of her confidential funds amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos, although she has remained a leading presidential contender. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)