PNP sues VP for ‘assault’; AFP revamps her security

GOING AGAINST NO. 2 Acting Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Director Col. Melecio Buslig (center) accompanies QCPD medical and dental unit chief Lt. Col. Van Jason Villamor (left) in filing a complaint on Wednesday against Vice President Sara Duterte and her staff for direct assault during last weekend’s tensions at the Batasang Pambansa and Veterans Memorial Medical Center. —Niño Jesus Orbeta

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Wednesday filed the first criminal complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte that stemmed from her outbursts over the weekend in her attempt to prevent the transfer of her top aide from detention at the House of Representatives to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW).

The QCPD accused Duterte, the chief of her security unit and several of her bodyguards of direct assault, disobedience and grave coercion during a commotion past midnight last Saturday as the police were preparing to move Duterte’s chief of staff Zuleika Lopez to the St. Lukes Medical Center from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC).

Armed forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. on Wednesday said he had ordered the replacement of Duterte’s security chief and the military personnel who are members of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG).

READ: Sara Duterte blocks execution of House order on Lopez detention change

The main complainant in the case, Dr. Van Jason Villamor of the Philippine National Police Health Service, accompanied by his witnesses and officers from the QCPD, filed the charges before Asst. City Prosecutor Rommel Delos Reyes of Quezon City. Villamor is a police lieutenant colonel.

Villamor accused Army Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, commander of the VPSPG and unidentified Duterte bodyguards, of shoving him at the VMMC after Lopez was carried into an ambulance.

PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil had written Brawner to get the identities of other members of the VPSPG who were involved in the transfer of Lopez.

“In a video that surfaced, VPSPG head, Colonel Raymund Dante Lachica, was seen physically pushing and assaulting the PNP doctor-in-charge, which could lead to a direct assault complaint,” Marbil said in his letter.

Lopez was ordered detained last week by the House committee on good government and public accountability after being cited in contempt for “undue interference” in the House inquiry into the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education when Duterte was the education secretary.

Lopez, 50, was brought to the VMMC as she suffered a panic attack late Friday after House security officers informed her that the good government panel had decided to move her to the CIW so that Duterte would no longer need to keep her company at the House.

Lopez refused to leave her detention cell and later called an online press conference detailing the House’s plan, tearfully saying that she feared for her life and didn’t want to be detained at the correctional institution as she wasn’t criminally accused.

Duterte, who occupied the office of her brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, to be close to Lopez during detention, came to her rescue and announced that she was acting as her lawyer and stopped her aide’s transfer to the CIW.

Pushing, shoving

PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said Villamor, who is assigned to the QCPD, was instructed to assist in the transfer of Lopez. “But Col. Lachica pushed him and we cannot let that pass,” she said in a press briefing.

Lachica’s actions “obviously can qualify to a case of direct assault” since he laid his hands on “agents of a person of authority whose presence there is by virtue of his performance of his official duty,” Fajardo said.

Marbil said the filing of the complaint marked “a crucial step in the legal process” and vowed that the PNP will continue to uphold its duty to serve with integrity and professionalism.

“The PNP continues to prioritize the rule of law and will fully cooperate with the ongoing legal proceedings to ensure transparency and accountability,” he said.

Villamor was wearing his police uniform, not a doctor’s garb, when the alleged shoving happened. He declined to give details of his complaint to reporters after he emerged from the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.

Duterte herself is under investigation after taking over from Lopez’s press conference, including her profanity-laden rants and especially her disclosure that she had contracted an assassin to kill President Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

She said her instruction was to kill the three if an alleged plot to kill her succeeds, adding that her “revenge from the grave” was “no joke.”

It was the strongest blow she has made that finally shattered the once formidable alliance between the Duterte and Marcos political clans.

Fajardo said the PNP had deployed 25 police officers to the VPSPG on Tuesday following a request from the AFP to augment Duterte’s security.

“I think this was triggered by the possible recall of some of the AFP personnel under detail of the VPSPG as a result of what happened last Saturday,” she said.

Marbil redeployed 75 police officers who were assigned to the OVP’s security force to various posts in Metro Manila in July because he said the PNP was short staffed and there was no threat to Duterte.

He said at the time that securing the Vice President is mainly the job of the Presidential Security Command, a military unit and that the police were only there to augment.

Brawner said he would “temporarily replace” the troops assigned to the VPSPG.

New security contingent

Speaking at a military leadership summit at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Brawner said Lachica and other VPSPG personnel would be replaced with a contingent from the AFP and the PNP.

He said the AFP received a subpoena from the PNP calling the members of the VPSPG to an investigation.

“So, we decided to follow the subpoena of the Philippine National Police so that they could shed light on the investigation,” he added.

Brawner said they have yet to determine the total number of VPSPG members who would be replaced.

But he assured the vice president that she would not be left without a security detail, citing that her security “is still of primary concern to us.”

“Because if something happens to the vice president, this could be the beginning of chaos because of her statement that if something happens to her, she will do some actions to take against the President, First Lady and House Speaker,” he said.

According to him, some groups could take advantage and harm the vice president and “accuse someone and that could cause chaos.”

“So, we will not allow that, we will not allow that. That is why we will protect our vice president,” he added.

Davao police

In Davao City, the Davao regional police brushed aside insinuations that politics was behind the decision to reassign 65 officers from Region 11 to various posts in Luzon.

Police Maj. Catherine Dela Rey, the regional police spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday that the order to uproot the officers of various ranks from the region was a decision taken by the national police command and just coincided with the eruption of the political tensions between the Marcos administration and the Vice President.

The Vice President’s security force was created at Duterte’s request days before she officially took office on June 30, 2022.

She said the creation of the VPSPG highlighted the importance of “having an independent group” that would provide security and protection to the country’s vice presidents.

Duterte said she made the request in anticipation of “future elections” and the possibility of “strained relations” between the president and vice president.

Previously, the PSC, which was called the Presidential Security Group, provides protection and escort for the president, vice president and their immediate families, and for visiting dignitaries.

After her resignation from the Marcos Cabinet took effect in July 2024, the VPSPG had around 400 members.

Former Vice President Leni Robredo only had 83 security men assigned to her, down from 108 when she took office in 2016, according to her former spokesperson Barry Gutierrez. —with reports from Nestor Corrales, Joselle R. Badilla and Inquirer Research