Castro asks DOJ to annul dismissal of case vs ex-president Duterte

Former President Rodrigo Duterte and Act Party-list Rep. France Castro (File photos from Malacañang and the House of Representatives)

MANILA, Philippines — ACT Party-list Rep. France Castro asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday to annul the findings of the Quezon City Prosecutors Office, which dismissed her grave threat complaint against former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Quezon City Prosecutors Office, in a resolution dated Jan. 9, junked the complaint against Duterte for insufficient evidence.

READ: QC Prosecutor dismisses criminal raps vs. ex-President Duterte

Castro filed the complaint against Duterte, citing Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code and Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, for statements he made during a television program at Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) against the lawmaker as he talked about the proposed confidential fund for the offices being helmed by his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.

READ: Criminal complaint filed vs. ex-President Duterte

In his “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” program that aired on Oct. 11, 2023, Duterte was quoted: “I told Inday [Sara] to be direct, tell them that the intelligence fund is meant to prepare the minds of the Filipinos, to address the insurgency that is taking a long time to end… 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].”

According to the Quezon City Prosecutors Office, the manner in which Duterte made the statements “do not convincingly establish that indeed respondent intended them to be taken seriously and that they were deliberately made for the purpose of creating in the mind of the complainant the belief that the threats will be carried into effect.”

The Quezon City Prosecutors Office added that if one were serious about harming another person, it would be “ridiculous” for him or her to make it public.

In her petition for review filed at the DOJ, Castro said the prosecutor committed grave abuse of discretion.

“There is nothing in the Rules that provides for an ‘authentication or certification’ from social media platforms or from the television network where the electronic document is taken,” Castro said in her petition.

“The OCP [Office of City Prosecutor] committed grave abuse of discretion when it refused to give due evidentiary value to the complainant’s sworn statement that she has personally watched, downloaded, and saved the video footages containing Respondent-Appellee’s threatening remarks,” she added.

The petition further asserted that “a careful re-examination” of Castro’s complaint would show the presence of all elements of grave threat.

In her petition, Castro likewise pointed out that the Quezon City Prosecutors Office’s dismissal of her complaint against the former president “undermines efforts to address online threats, contributes to normalizing violent rhetoric, and erodes public trust in the legal system’s ability to handle explicit threats from those in power, effectively deterring dissent.”

Lawyers from the Movement Against Disinformation led by Dean Tony La Viña and Rico Domingo are representing Castro in her complaint against Duterte.