By Beting Laygo Dolor, Contributing Editor
Former president Rodrigo Duterte faces possible legal action after he threatened to kill a lawmaker, who was among those who questioned his daughter Vice-president Sara Duterte’s insistence that she needed millions of pesos in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) to be able to do her work not only as VP but also as Education secretary.
The elder Duterte had issued a death threat to ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro last week during an interview over SMNI, the network owned by his spiritual adviser Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
The leaders of all the political parties in the House of Representatives said they took “utmost exception” to the threatening statements of the former president against Castro, who had been among the most vocal critics of the younger Duterte’s CIF totaling PHP650 million (about US$11.6 million), which the lower house of the country’s bicameral Congress reassigned to other branches of government directly involved in intelligence activities.
In taking exception to the remarks, the House issued a statement saying, “Our institution, the House of Representatives, has been unwavering to its dedication to the Filipino people.”
The statement from House Sec. Gen. Reginald Velasco added that it was “deeply unfortunate that the former president chose to malign the very institution that for years supported many of his own legislative priorities.”
The network has since removed the video clip of the former president threatening Castro, whom the father and daughter had red-tagged as a member of the communist movement.
The lawmaker’s party is part of the progressive Makabayan bloc in the House, which has been accused as having links to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, although this has never been proven.
Even Duterte’s allies in Congress, notably Sen. Bato dela Rosa, has red-tagged the Makabayan bloc as communists while offering no proof.
Said the bloc: “We will not be silenced by threats and intimidation. We will continue to advocate for government transparency and the abolition of confidential funds. We in the Makabayan bloc are also looking into possible legal actions against (Rodrigo Duterte).”
Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas – a member of the Makabayan bloc – added that “threatening the lives of elected representatives is a blatant violation and a dangerous attack on the rights of individuals who are merely pushing for transparency and accountability in government spending.”
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers through its Sec. Gen. Kristina Conti said the former president should be charged with making direct threats against the ACT Party-list representative, as Duterte’s statement “comes with the context that he is personally capable and willing to see these kinds of threats through.”
A Commission on Audit report stated that in his last full year as president in 2021, Rodrigo Duterte spent PHP4.5 billion (about US$80.357 million) in confidential funds, while in 2022 when the presidency was shared between Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., another PHP4.5 billion was similarly spent.
It was also learned that Sara Duterte availed of hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds during her time as Davao City mayor.
CIF are not subject to audit, which progressive lawmakers say is a source of wholesale graft and corruption.
As for the elder Duterte, it was during his six-year term as president that his administration waged a bloody war on drugs that saw anywhere from 6,000 to 30,000 mostly young Filipino males killed, either by police, the military, or suspected death squads with the tacit or implied support of the regime.
The International Criminal Court is investigating Duterte for what it says is mass killings of civilians who were not given the chance to surrender and who were only suspected of being involved in the illegal drug trade.
