Vice President Leni Robredo and her co-respondents will be shown “utmost fairness” in the resolution of the sedition complaint filed against them by the Philippine National Police, which has accused them of plotting to destabilize and oust President Rodrigo Duterte, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Friday.
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Guevarra made the assurance as the special panel of prosecutors tasked to conduct a preliminary investigation issued subpoenas Friday requiring the vice president and other respondents to answer the allegations against them.
The panel has set the first preliminary investigation hearing on Aug. 9 at 10 a.m.
Opposition leaders named in the case have dismissed the charges an act of political persecution and harassment.
Robredo, Senators Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, former Senators Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Antonio Trillanes IV, several members of the Otso Diretso senatorial slate, a number of Catholic clergy, and officers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines are expected to be ordered to answer the complaint filed by the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
The Justice secretary said prosecutors would resolve the case based on the evidence or lack of it.
“I assure everyone of utmost fairness in the resolution of this case. The evidence, or the lack of it, will speak for itself,” Guevarra told reporters.
“In the ordinary course of things, the complaint shall be dismissed as to those respondents against whom no evidence is presented, while those against whom sufficient evidence is presented shall accordingly be indicted. Let’s wait until this process is completed,” he added.
Last week, the PNP-CIDG asked the DOJ to prosecute Robredo and her co-respondents for sedition, inciting to sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal, and obstruction of justice for plotting to oust the President by implicating him and his family in the illegal drug trade.
The sworn affidavit submitted by Peter Joemel Advincula, the man who said he was the hooded “Bikoy” figure in the “Ang Totoong Narco-list” viral videos implicating the presidential family and a Cabinet official to illegal drugs, was the basis for the filing of criminal charges against Robredo and her co-repsondebnts.
But Robredo’s spokesman, Barry Gutierrez, said the vice president cannot be charged in court because she is an impeachable officer.
“As an impeachable officer, you cannot be removed by any other means except impeachment. That’s the basic constitutional principle. Every first-year law student knows that. If you are convicted of a crime under the Revised Penal Code—inciting to sedition, violation of cybercrime; obstruction of justice…most of these crimes carry the penalty of disqualification from holding public office. In effect, it will result in a removal, and you will be violating the basic rule that you can only be removed by impeachment [if you file charges against an impeachable officer],” Gutierrez said in an interview with the ANC news channel.
Robredo’s supporters on Friday submitted a 600-page petition to the Justice department urging Guevarra to dismiss the charges against the vice president.
The online petition was spearheaded by Team Pilipinas, a group of opposition supporters, and gathered more than 16,000 signatures through the website Change.org.
The group believes that Robredo, the leader of the opposition, is the main target of the sedition case.
“To prosecute Robredo and remove her from her position based on bogus allegations from a questionable witness is a clear violation of the mandate of the people and an outright insult to our democracy.”
The group cited statements from administration officials questioning the credibility of Advincula.
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