PNP will be ready if VP Duterte files raps vs cops, says spokesperson

PNP Spokesperson Brig. Gen Jean Fajardo
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday said that it is ready to face the charges Vice President Sara Duterte is set to file against them.

It was on Wednesday when Duterte said she is considering filing charges for disobedience, kidnapping and robbery against the PNP

READ: Sara Duterte eyes disobedience, kidnapping, robbery raps vs PNP

“That is their right, and the PNP is ready to face these cases,” PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said in Filipino during the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing.

“We will wait for the official copy of the charges they filed against our police and we will be given the opportunity to answer that,” she added in Filipino.

Fajardo then maintained that the action of the PNP on Saturday was just them doing their job upon the instructions of the House of Representatives.

“We did not violate any laws with respect to the actions of your PNP last Saturday,” she said.

The 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.

The PNP, for its part, filed complaints for grave coercion, direct assault, and disobedience against Vice President Sara Duterte and her chief of security, Colonel Raymond Lachica, and several others for allegedly blocking the PNP from performing their duties—even being physically and verbally assaulted.

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

Lopez was initially detained in a custodial room of the House of Representatives after being cited for contempt, 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.