Palace: Duterte's remarks are national security concerns, not just threats

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday rejected Vice President Sara Duterte’s assertion in the impeachment trial that the allegations that she threatened the life of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. lacked evidence.

Palace press officer Claire Castro said what Duterte did was not just simple grave threats, but a matter of national security because the vice president had threatened to have hired a hitman to assassinate President Marcos, as well as First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“Do her lawyers mean to say that any Filipino, or anyone at all, should be allowed to threaten the life of a head of state? That is not a normal kind of defense,” Castro said.

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“If it was not an assassination plot and there was no threat to anyone’s life, then what exactly did the vice president do?” she asked. “If those are not threats, then what should we define as threats?”

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For Castro, Duterte never denied making those statements during a November 2024 online press briefing. “Her lawyers were merely trying to justify why she said them,” she said.

According to her, a litigation lawyer, under the Rules of Court, once there is an admission and it was just being justified, the burden of evidence shifts from the prosecution to the person who admitted to plotting the killing.

“In truth, the prosecution should no longer need to present additional evidence because the admission came from the vice president herself. It is now up to them to prove that their justifications for making those statements are valid,” the Palace official said.

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“The Filipino people deserve the truth. Let us not muddle the story just to save anyone. The public deserves to know the truth,” she added.

Castro also hit back at the argument of Duterte’s lawyers that her statements were not directed to President Marcos, the first lady and Romualdez.

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“Those statements are ridiculous,” she said, noting that the crime of grave threats is consummated once the person being threatened becomes aware of it.

“Does Vice President believe that she did not threaten the lives of the president, the first Lady, and the former House speaker, even though the whole world saw her statements, her anger, and her admission that she had spoken to someone willing to kill them, and that she admitted they had reached an agreement?” Castro asked.

READ: Sara Duterte maintains kill plot vs Marcos not supported by evidence

The Senate impeachment court is currently tackling Article IV of the impeachment complaints against Duterte, which involve the alleged kill plot the vice president revealed against Marcos, his wife and cousin.

On Tuesday, Duterte said in a statement that her lawyers pointed out inconsistencies in the dates of the affidavit and docket numbers in the files of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during the defense team’s cross-examination of prosecution’s second witness, NBI-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc.

“Repeatedly claiming that there were threats when none existed, inventing an assassin where there was none, and fabricating evidence to support those claims does not transform fiction into fact,” Duterte said.

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“Instead, such actions undermine the integrity of public institutions, erode public trust, waste public resources, and corrupt the search for truth,” she added. /apl