No more Immunity: ex-President Duterte sued for televised ‘threat’

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro (Photo from the Facebook page of the ACT Teachers party-list)

MANILA, Philippines — ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro filed on Tuesday the first criminal complaint against former President Rodrigo Duterte since he left office in June last year and lost his immunity from suit, charging him with grave threats in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office after he threatened to kill her and “all you communists” on his television program.

“We all know that former President Duterte already lost his immunity from lawsuits. He cannot hide now and he has to face accountability over his threats against me, which [are] related to my duties and role in Congress,” Castro told reporters.

She expressed hope that her case would encourage ordinary Filipinos, especially victims of the former president’s bloody war on drugs, to seek justice.

“While we recognize that there is freedom of speech [and] freedom of expression, this has gone too far, going on national television and on social media to threaten one’s life. So it has to stop. He [Duterte] should stop his usual practices,” Castro said.

She was accompanied by her lawyers, Antonio La Viña and Rico Domingo from the Movement Against Disinformation, as she charged Duterte with grave threats under Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code as well as violation of Section 6 of Republic Act No. 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Castro included in her complaint a flash drive containing a downloaded copy of the Oct. 10 episode of “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” a program hosted by Duterte and his spiritual adviser, Apollo Quiboloy, on the latter’s Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) network.

Since Oct. 12, the over two-hour-long episode posted on the YouTube channel of SMNI’s radio arm, dzAR 1026, could no longer be accessed.

At one point in the program, Duterte talked about the request made by his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, who is concurrently the education secretary, for P650 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) next year.

Duterte recalled that he told Sara to be frank about what she would use the money for, saying, “Pero ang una mong target d’yan sa intelligence (sic) fund mo, kayo, ikaw France, kayong mga komunista ang gusto kong patayin. Sabihin mo na sa kanya. (But the first target of your intelligence fund would be you, France. I want to kill all you communists. Tell her that).”

“I anxiously watched this video, which runs for about 10 minutes and 31 seconds,” Castro said in her complaint. “Hearing Respondent Duterte, the immediate former President of the Philippines, father of the incumbent Vice President of the country and a self-confessed murderer, [call] my name multiple times and [make] grave threats to kill me made me immensely fearful for my life and security,” she added.

Duterte made the remark hours after a small House committee decided to remove all confidential funds from the OVP, DepEd, and three other departments and divert the money to agencies involved in protecting against Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea.

Castro was among the House opposition lawmakers who had questioned and opposed the request of the OVP and DepEd for confidential funds, primarily because the two offices did not have specific mandates directly related to defense and national security.

‘Accountability’

Should Duterte be found guilty, he could face imprisonment of one to six months and a fine amounting to P100,000 under the Revised Penal Code. Still, the penalty may be elevated by one degree since the case was also covered by the cybercrime prevention law, according to La Viña, who said the former president could face a jail term of up to six years.

The lawyer, however, pointed out that they were more concerned about holding Duterte accountable for his words and actions.

“This is about accountability,” La Viña said in a press briefing after the case filing. “Former President Duterte has gotten away with so many things because he had immunity from suits.”

“For the first time, we are holding [him] accountable for his actions in a Philippine court,” he added.

For Domingo, Castro’s complaint would also be a “test” for the country’s justice system — perceived by many as incapable of dispensing justice.

“What we filed is actually testing our judicial and prosecutorial system here [in the country]; how effective or ineffective it is,” he said.

The Inquirer tried to get a comment from Duterte’s camp about Castro’s complaint, but his close aides and former Cabinet members — Salvador Panelo and Salvador Medialdea—have yet to respond as of this writing.

Warning

Activists and cause-oriented groups, meanwhile, expressed their full support for Castro, with Renato Reyes of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan saying the criminal complaint should serve as a warning to Duterte, his apologists, and other red-taggers in the government that activists were “ready to challenge” their illegal acts.

“They failed to silence activists and the decision of Representative Castro to pursue legal action is proof that instead of being intimidated, the people’s movement is ready to fight back,” Reyes stressed.

For ACT Chair Vladimer Quetua, Castro’s move to “stand up for her freedom and security” has the group’s full backing, adding that threatening someone’s life should not be normalized in the minds of the youth.

He also expressed hope that the case would prove the country’s justice system was impartial.

Karapatan rights group Secretary General Cristina Palabay, on the other hand, called for an end to the culture of impunity perpetuated under the Duterte administration.

Duterte is also being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity arising from his anti-drug campaign. During the same episode in which he threatened Castro, Duterte admitted that he used his intelligence funds to bankroll extrajudicial killings while he was Davao City mayor.

His admission prompted former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the Magdalo group to send a copy of the TV interview to the ICC as additional evidence against him.

“This is truly an open-and-shut case,” Trillanes posted on X.

—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH