Vice President Sara Duterte, as a lawyer, would have understood that her alleged threatening remarks could expose her to criminal liability but later reaffirmed them instead of issuing a denial, a National Bureau of Investigation official told the Senate impeachment court.
NBI Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc, the prosecution’s second witness and former chief of the bureau’s Cybercrime Division, made the assertion while answering questions from Senator-Judge Risa Hontiveros about whether Duterte’s later statements could be treated as admissions against interest.
“May diperensya po ba sa pagtrato sa pahayag ng isang tao kung pabor sa kanya o against sa interes niya ang admission?” Hontiveros asked.
“Kasi base dito sa issue natin, ang Bise Presidente is abogada, alam na po niya ‘yun na the moment she uttered those kind of statements, pwede ho siyang mag-fall in any criminal violation,” Lotoc replied.
Lotoc said Duterte did not distance herself from the remarks when she addressed the controversy on Nov. 26, 2024, three days after her late-night online news conference.
“So pagdating ho noong November 26, instead of avoiding mentioning those utterances, instead of denying mentioning—o, instead of denying that she made those utterances, ang sinabi po niya, ni-reiterate niya, ‘Yes, sinabi ko yan,’ na someone has to take revenge kung sakaling mangyari ito, mamatay ako,” he testified.
During the Nov. 23, 2024 broadcast, Duterte said she had instructed a person to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez should she herself be killed.
Duterte later maintained that the remarks described a conditional act of revenge and did not constitute an active assassination plot.
Hontiveros asked whether the NBI’s assessment would have been different had Duterte denied making the remarks or clarified that she did not mean them.
“So kung sa halip na i-reiterate niya, i-deny niya ‘yung naunang sinabi, kung sinabi niya na ‘hindi ko talaga mine-mean yan,’ or may sinabi siyang maituturing na pabor sa kanya, iba po ‘yung pagtrato niyo sa ganyang klaseng pahayag sana?” Hontiveros asked.
The NBI subsequently recommended the filing of three counts of grave threats and one count of inciting to sedition against Duterte.
The impeachment complaint separately cites her statements in support of allegations involving culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust.