Sabio told: Go to PNP if you feel at risk

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque answers question during a press briefing held in Malacañang, Thursday, Feb. 8.
INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Malacañang on Monday said it bore “no ill will” against the lawyer who haled President Duterte into the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that if Jude Josue Sabio felt threatened, he could seek help from the courts or the Philippine National Police, which Sabio accused of committing extrajudicial killings and whose chief he also implicated in the ICC case.

“We don’t put much importance to the complaint. We have no ill will against him. We know it will not proceed beyond preliminary examination,” Roque said in a press briefing.

Sabio on Sunday said he felt “tremendous pressure” from the implications of what he might have set in motion after the ICC started a preliminary examination of allegations Mr. Duterte was responsible for the mass murder of suspects in his brutal war on drugs.

“I always assume my life is in danger, especially now that my enemy is not only the President,” Sabio said. “He has tentacles everywhere and they are killers.” —PHILIP C. TUBEZA