QC Prosecutors Office summons ex-president Duterte over Castro complaint

Former president Rodrigo Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City Prosecutors Office has summoned former president Rodrigo Duterte for an investigation on the criminal complaint filed by ACT Representative France Castro.

Duterte is facing a complaint for Grave Threat under Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code and Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 for the statements he made over a television program at Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) where he talked about the confidential fund of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte. 

The Quezon City Prosecutors Office required Duterte to appear on December 4 and 11 and submit his counter-affidavit or response to Castro’s complaint.

“No motion to dismiss shall be entertained. Only counter-affidavit shall be admitted otherwise, respondent is deemed to have waived the right to present evidence,” read the subpoena.

In his Gikan sa Masa, Para sa asa Program at SMNI that aired October 11, 2023, Duterte talked about his daughter’s plan of using confidential funds for a soft revival of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. (ROTC) program, said Sara should be frank to Congress, particularly Castro, that she needs the CF fund to stop the communist insurgency.

“But your first target there, using your intelligence funds, is you, France, you communists who I want to kill. I asked her to tell them that, but she refused, saying, ‘You know Pa, if I did that, they might harass the PMTs (Philippine Military Training institutions),’” he added.

In her complaint, Castro said Duterte made several insinuations linking her to the communist armed movement without any proof.

“Though factually baseless and clearly malicious, I cannot merely dismiss Respondent Duterte’s red-tagging and accompanying grave threats as either figurative, joking, or otherwise benign,” Castro said as she pointed out that many red-tagged individuals were eventually arrested,  detained, or killed.