Assault, disobedience cases against Sara Duterte dismissed by QC prosecutors
The Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office has dismissed the criminal cases of assault and disobedience filed against Vice President Sara Duterte following a confrontation with the police for the hospital transfer of her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez.
In a resolution that was published on Jan. 28, Assistant City Prosecutor Criscelyn Carayugan Lugo junked the direct assault, disobedience, and grave coercion complaints filed by Police Lieutenant Colonel Van Jason Villamor against Duterte and her security head Raymund Petina Lachica.
This was due to a lack of "prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction" regarding the incident with the police in November 2024.
"The alleged commission of Direct Assault, Disobedience to Authority and Grave Coercion is not supported by evidence. Interestingly, not one of the witnesses of Villamor corroborated his claims regarding the purported attack, employment of physical force, intimidation, resistance, disobedience, violence and threats," the resolution stated.
"They did not narrate the encounter between the parties in their respective affidavits. They also did not discuss the behaviour of PLtCol Villamor after the incident, which could have persuaded us that he was threatened and intimidated, if at all," it added.
Moreover, Lugo said that the video footage submitted by Villamore "negates his own asseverations."
"Here, such quantum of evidence was not reached because the evidence-at-hand, vis-à-vis the defenses raised, are insufficient to establish all the elements of the crimes charged, and to warrant a conviction beyond reasonable doubt," the decision read.
The charges came after Duterte confronted the police during Lopez's transfer to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center amid her detention at the House of Representatives Detention Center.
Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil detailed that in a video taken during the incident, Lachica was seen "physically pushing and assaulting the PNP doctor-in-charge" during Lopez’s transfer from the VMMC to St. Luke's Medical Center using a private ambulance.
The vice president also reportedly berated a police officer during the incident, saying "'Wag kayong bakla.”
Reports said that the actions done by Duterte’s camp during the incident may have impeded the lawful detention order issued by the House and disrupted operations at the detention center and the VMMC.
Duterte still faces three impeachment raps from different religious and political groups.
