DOJ warns Sara of criminal liabilities for Marcos kill threat

In this video screen capture, Vice President Sara Duterte again lets it all out against the first couple and their allies in the House of Representatives at an online press conference that she called on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s threat against the life of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. showed her “lack of recourse to legal and judicial remedies” which “exposes” her to criminal liabilities, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday.

Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said this as he bared that the DOJ was already studying all possible legal consequences Duterte might face after admitting that she instructed someone to assassinate Marcos, his wife Liza, and cousin House Speaker Martin Romualdez should she be killed.

Andres even tagged Duterte’s pronouncements — whom he tagged as a “self-professed mastermind” — as “appalling.”

READ: VP Sara: Threat vs Marcos ‘maliciously taken out of logical context’

“The important thing that everyone should understand from those statements, is the lack of recourse to legal and judicial remedies. That is appalling in the situation where a high-ranking official would not have recourse to legal and judicial remedies to seek redress,” Andres said.

He added that, no matter what Duterte’s justification, justice should be exacted through a legal and judicial process.

READ: PSC doubles PBBM’s security detail after VP Sara ‘threat’

“We cannot take the law into our own hands. No one shall espouse that kind of thinking, and that is why, I strongly believe that that exposes her to criminal liabilities,” he added.

Suspension, impeachment?

When asked if Duterte’s recent pronouncements could lead to suspension or even impeachment, Andres responded that it would still depend on the Office of Ombudsman and the Congress, respectively.

READ: Death threat on first couple, a ground for Sara’s impeachment?

“Is not within the ambit of our authority to determine whether this should be grounds for impeachment. But, I will only say that there are serious violations of the law in this act,” Andres said.

He also clarified that Duterte was not immune from criminal suits.

“She can be the subject of any criminal administrative case and the Ombudsman also has the authority to do its duty to discipline and take necessary measures to deliver on its mandate as the investigator of all high-ranking government officials,” Andres said.

Backtracking

After revealing the assassination threat against Marcos and his family, Duterte has since backtracked from her statement, stating that it was “maliciously taken out of logical context.”

However, Andres noted that Duterte herself stated that the murder plot was “not a joke.”

He also noted Duterte to be the “ultimate beneficiary” in case the president actually gets killed.

“If such an event happens, who will benefit? She is the beneficiary of the death of the president,” Andres said.

“So, her words have to be taken in the proper context,” he added.

He also noted that this was not the first time Duterte alluded to killing Marcos, referring to when she previously revealed that she also daydreamed about cutting off Marcos’ head.

“That is a very serious, serious action taken by the VP and we have to go through the process and seek accountability for this,” he said.