The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed a complaint for unlawful utterances and inciting to sedition against former President Rodrigo Duterte over the latter’s “kill” remark against 15 incumbent senators even as the National Bureau of Investigation dismissed the threat as mere “propaganda.”
“This is a new Philippines we are in now. These kinds of statements that are passed off as jokes the next day are no longer allowed,” CIDG chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III said.
“Are we still going to tolerate this chaos of killing? And if they will be taken on their word, they would just pass it off as a joke. Or the latest excuse is that he’s only expressing a legal opinion,” Torre added.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago, however, said Duterte’s remark was just “a joke” and “part of political propaganda” after lawmakers urged the NBI to investigate the former President.
“That was just rhetorics – part of their political propaganda,” Santiago said.
He said the circumstances when the former president delivered his joke was very different from when Vice President Sara Duterte said she spoke to someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez if something happens to her.
“President Digong is good at delivering (a joke)…The joke was delivered in a political rally while Vice President Sara’s delivery was in a press conference and she named who should be killed… and she even said ‘no joke, no joke,’” Santiago said.
During the PDP proclamation rally in San Juan Tuesday last week, Duterte said all of his candidates would get a seat in the Upper Chamber if 15 senators were killed.
“Let’s kill the senators now to vacate the seats. If we can eliminate 15 senators, we can all get in… Talking of opportunities, the only way to do it is to blow them up,” the Duterte patriarch said.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said if an incumbent senator files a complaint, the NBI and the DOJ will act on it.
“We’re used to the language of the former President. We cannot jump at his every word. But if the senators themselves complain, then we have reason to act on the matter because of course they are the ones endangered by such statements,” Remulla said.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Monday warned that repeated mentions of death and killing can be a symptom of a serious personality disorder.
“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 as he urged the DOJ and the NBI to determine whether the remarks warrant legal action.
“Let DOJ and NBI do their work. They should know if, given the facts, a crime has been committed or not. If there is no crime whatsoever, then let us drop the issue,” he said.
Duterte’s former legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said it was foolish to interpret the remark as anything but a joke.
“What is happening to our country? Are we no longer allowed to joke? If we joke, will a complaint be filed against us? Is there no democracy in this country?” Panelo said.
But the CIDG chief cautioned that Duterte’s words may be taken seriously by his supporters, citing what happened during the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
However, the CIDG chief stressed that Duterte’s words may be taken seriously by his supporters, saying this has happened during the Duterte administration’s drug war.
“That happened before already. He said drug addicts should be killed. And it happened. There was a lot of killing,” Torre said.