Sara Duterte eyes disobedience, kidnapping, robbery raps vs PNP

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday said she is considering filing charges for disobedience, kidnapping and robbery against the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Duterte made the pronouncement after noting that the complaints filed by the PNP against her earlier the same day “would not hold water.”

READ: QCPD files assault complaint vs Sara Duterte, OVP security chief

“Initially, we are filing charges against them as well for disobedience, for kidnapping, for robbery,” she said in a press conference in Zamboanga City.

READ: VP Duterte: Romualdez is the only person who wants to kill me

Both sides’ complaints stemmed from an incident during the transfer of detained Office of the Vice President (OVP) chief of staff Zuleika Lopez from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) to the St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) in Quezon City on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Initially, Lopez was detained in a custodial room of the House of Representatives, but the situation escalated in the wee hours of Saturday after she was ordered to be transferred to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.

Lopez refused to comply, and was then rushed to the VMMC and then to the SMLC after suffering from a panic attack. However, Lopez was then transferred back to VMMC after being cleared by SMLC physicians by afternoon the same day.

After revealing her plans to file complaints against the PNP, Duterte in the same conference then chastized the PNP after it admitted to not having any information on the supposed threat against her life.

“Nakakahiya na meron tayong pulis na hindi nila alam ang threats sa VP. ’Wag sila magsasalita ng ganiyan kasi nagpapakita ’yan ng incompetence ng PNP (It’s a shame that we have police who don’t know the threats to the VP. They should not talk like that because it shows the incompetence of the PNP.),” said Duterte.

The Vice President then schooled the PNP that if she was in their position, she would have simply said that they will investigate the alleged threats to verify it’s true or not, rather than simply admit that they do not have information on it.

“Nakakahiya na ang pulis ganiyan. So ibig sabihin ang dami nilang walang alam na mga pangyayari so, kaya pala nagkaniya kaniya na ang mga kriminal kasi walang alam ang kapulisan? (It’s shameful that the police are like that. So it means that they don’t know about a lot of events, that’s why criminals have spread out because the police don’t know?)” said Duterte.

“Nakakahiya para sa Pilipinas na naririnig ang pulis natin ganiyan magsalita (it’s a shame for the Philippines to hear our police speak like that),” she added.

It was in a press conference on Friday when Duterte claimed that none other than Speaker Martin Romualdez is the only person who would want to kill her. The latter quickly denied this by tagging it as a mere “product of fertile imagination.”

Just a day after, Duterte then threatened to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife Liza, and Romualdez killed in the event of her demise.