Philippine police file criminal complaints against Sara Duterte, her security aides

Philippine police file criminal complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte for assaulting authorities in Congress squabble.

Philippine police officials on Wednesday (November 27, 2024) filed criminal complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte and her security staff for allegedly assaulting authorities and disobeying orders in a recent altercation in Congress.

The criminal complaints filed by the Quezon City police were separate from any legal action that may arise after she publicly threatened to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his wife and the speaker of the House of Representatives assassinated if she were to kill herself in an unspecified plot. She has not provided details of that plot.

A presidential adviser, Larry Gadon, separately filed a Supreme Court petition on Wednesday (November 27, 2024) to disbar the Vice President as a lawyer, citing her assassination threats, which he said were “illegal, immoral and condemnable.”

The Marcos administration's legal offensive against Ms. Duterte, her father and their allies is a critical juncture in a conflict that has seethed over the last two years between the two most powerful families in the Philippines.

Speaking in a news conference, the Vice President broadly denied and played down the criminal complaints, allegations and potential lawsuits against her, including a possible impeachment case and an alleged violation of the country's anti-terror law.

She said the government actions were aimed at removing her from office, freezing her properties and bank accounts and barring her from travelling abroad.

Ms. Duterte said without elaborating that the danger to her life was real but added that the threats she made were not actual and illegal.