THE MANILA TIMES | Published February 19, 2025
THE head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Maj. Gen. Nicholas Torre III, said on Tuesday no one persuaded him to file criminal charges against former president Rodrigo Duterte.
“We don’t need the Senate nor Malacañang in order to file this case. I don’t think Malacañang should get involved because this is pure law enforcement,” Torre told reporters in a press briefing in Camp Crame.
The charges stemmed from the statement of Duterte during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) senatorial proclamation rally that 15 senators may be killed to make room for his candidates.
Torre filed charges of sedition and unlawful utterances against Duterte before the Department of Justice.
He said senators were free to file complaints against Duterte for his illicit remarks.
Torre said that Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil knew about his plan to file the complaint.
“I informed the PNP chief that I’ll be filing the cases, and he said, ‘Go ahead, do your job.’ Trabaho ko ito eh (This is my job),” the CIDG head said.
I’ll be remiss if I did not file, and other people will file charges,” he added.
Torre said the former president’s remarks should not be taken lightly.
On Tuesday, Sen. Robinhood Padilla, a close ally of Duterte, publicly apologized for the former president’s comment, saying it was meant as a joke.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said it was up to the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation to determine the value of evidence submitted against Duterte.
They should know, given the facts, whether a crime has been committed or not. If there is no crime whatsoever, then let us drop the issue. However, a person’s obsession with the topic of death and killing, mentioning it every time he or she speaks, is a worrying sign of a serious personality disorder,” Pimentel said in a statement.
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SOURCE: www.manilatimes.net
RELATED:: Philippines’ Duterte faces legal trouble over ‘kill senators’ remark
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST | Published February 18, 2025
‘Let’s kill senators now so there will be vacancies,’ the former president said at a recent campaign rally
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte faced a criminal complaint on Monday over comments he made during a campaign rally when he said 15 senators should be killed in a bomb attack to allow more vacant seats for his political party’s candidates to contest.
The alleged illegal utterances and inciting to sedition were contained in a complaint filed by police Major General Nicolas Torre III to the Department of Justice.
They were the latest legal trouble to face the former president and his family under President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr.
Campaigning is under way for half of the 24 Senate seats for the May 12 midterm elections in the Philippines.
The former president’s camp said his remarks were just a joke uttered to liven up a political rally on Thursday for the nine senatorial candidates of his PDP-Laban party.
Philippine’s former president Rodrigo Duterte (centre) and senatorial candidates of his PDP-Laban’s party gesture during a proclamation rally ahead of the midterm elections on February 13, 2025. Photo: AFP
“Let’s kill senators now so there will be vacancies,” Duterte said at the proclamation rally of his party’s senatorial candidates. “If we can kill about 15 senators, we’re in … the only way to do it is, let’s just stage an explosion.”
Torre said the tumultuous era during Duterte’s six-year presidency, when he could just publicly threaten to kill anybody, was over.
“Our country went through a lot of troubles in those past six years,” Torre told reporters. “Do we want those troubles to continue, the constant threats of killings that they will dismiss later by just saying that these were just a joke?”
The danger with such remarks, Torre added, was that followers may take Duterte’s remarks seriously and carry them out.
Duterte’s daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, is facing an impeachment trial partly for publicly threatening to have Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez assassinated if she herself were fatally attacked amid an escalating political rivalry between the two highest leaders of one of Asia’s most unwieldy democracies.
The vice-president had denied that her remarks in an online news conference in November amounted to a threat to kill Marcos, although that was what she literally said.
The International Criminal Court had been investigating the large number of killings that happened under the former president’s crackdowns against illegal drugs, which left thousands of mostly poor suspect dead, as a possible crime against humanity.
Duterte had denied he authorised extrajudicial killings under his anti-drugs crackdowns while he was in office, but he had openly and repeatedly threatened to kill suspected drug dealers while in power.
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SOURCE: www.scmp.com
RELATED: Duterte faces sedition rap for ‘kill senators’ quip
Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte addresses a proclamation rally for his senatorial candidates of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino party ahead of the midterm elections, at a social club in Manila on February 13, 2025. —Photo by Ted Aljibe/Agence France-Presse
THE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER | Published February 18, 2025
MANILA, Philippines — A top police official on Monday filed a complaint of inciting to sedition against former President Rodrigo Duterte over his remarks suggesting the killing of senators to “create vacancies” for senatorial candidates of his political party.
This developed amid calls by lawmakers from the House of Representatives to have the former president investigated for his remarks at the proclamation rally of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) on Feb. 13.
Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police, filed the complaint of inciting to sedition and unlawful utterances in the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Under Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code, inciting to sedition carries the penalty of prision correccional in its maximum period (six months and one day to six years in prison) and a fine not exceeding P400,000, whereas under Article 154, unlawful means of publication or utterances carries the penalty of arresto mayor (one month and one day to six months in prison) and a fine of up to P200,000.
The complaint—the second legal action against Duterte over his myriad “kill” remarks—will be evaluated by the National Prosecution Service as to whether it has sufficient evidence to warrant a preliminary investigation.
‘Kill, kill’
Torre told reporters that “I am filing this as a citizen, and as a policeman. It’s part of the PNP’s duty to ensure that we protect the public from criminal activities like this.”
“It may seem trivial, but coming from a former President, it’s not farfetched that it could be copied or taken seriously by his blind supporters,” he added.
“Because it’s already happened, right? He said to kill drug addicts, and it actually happened,” said Torre, a former police chief of Davao Region.
Duterte said at the proclamation rally in Club Filipino: “Now, there’s many of them (candidates for senator). What should we do? Let’s kill the senators now to create vacancies.”
Behind the former president was Sen. Robinhood Padilla who smiled at Duterte’s remarks, which drew laughter from the audience and later chants of “Kill, kill.”
“If we can kill around 15 senators, we can all go in. But they’d be pitiful. Yet they’re irritating—not all of them, though. Talking of opportunities, the only way to do it is to use a bomb,” the former president added.
Bomb jokes are punishable by imprisonment under Presidential Decree No. 1727.
‘Just rhetoric’
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, for his part, told reporters that “The NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) can look at that motu proprio. But you know, sometimes we’re used to the former President’s language. We’re accustomed to it. Not everything he says will make us jump, right?”
Remulla also noted that Duterte’s remarks differed from the assassination threats by his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, against President Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez.
In her online press briefing in November last year, the Vice President said her remarks were “no joke, no joke.” The NBI has recommended filing charges of grave threats and inciting to sedition against the younger Duterte.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago on Monday also played down the former president’s remarks, saying, “That’s just rhetoric, part of their political propaganda.”
Remulla had suggested that “if the senators file a complaint themselves, the DOJ will have a reason to act on it,” as they would be the ones at risk from Duterte’s remarks.
But some senators themselves dismissed these utterances by the former President.
“I think he just said it in jest. You know [him]. He’s just playful,” Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said, adding that “he (Duterte) is so entertaining to watch.”
Duterte’s ally, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said: “It’s as if you don’t know President Duterte… It’s still a big deal to you… Don’t believe that joke. It’s a joke, clear.”
Drawing the line
House lawmakers also on Monday held a news conference to call for the NBI’s investigation.
“Do we allow this kind of rhetoric in the first place? Do we actually normalize this kind of talk? Especially if it’s uttered in a very important event like a proclamation rally?” House Assistant Majority Leader Zia Alonto Adiong said, reiterating his earlier call for such an inquiry.
“We are actually trying to convey a message where, in the case of the former president, he somehow has the license and permit to say anything he [wants]. He can tell you, ‘I will kill you.’ He can tell you, ‘I will kill him,’ and then get away with it,” he added.
“Let’s draw the line. When can we actually accept things as joke or as a mere, a simple ordinary rhetoric from that of a statement that actually causes harm to individual lives? So I think that’s just the thing that I would like to drive at,” Adiong also said.
He noted further that ordinary Filipinos are punished for simple bomb jokes.
1-Rider Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez said, “I think we have to really take [Duterte’s remarks] seriously this time.”
He expressed concern that Duterte’s followers could take his remarks as a “call to arms.”
“That’s [the] problem with words—it emboldens people to do what might be wrong,” Gutierrez said.
The lawmakers also appealed to Santiago to reconsider his “unfortunate” position.
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SOURCE: www.newsinfo.inquirer.net
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