Former President Rodrigo R. Duterte has been summoned by the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office to appear personally on Dec. 4 and 11 to submit his counter-affidavit on the complaint for grave threats filed against him by ACT Teacher Party-List Rep. France L. Castro.
In a subpoena dated Oct. 27, Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Ulric Badiola “commanded” Duterte to appear personally "for the purpose of submitting your Counter-Affidavit including affidavit/s of your witnesses and supporting documents, if any.”
Duterte was ordered to subscribe and swear on his affidavits personally before the prosecutor who issued the subpoena.
“No motion to dismiss shall be entertained. Only Counter-Affidavits shall be admitted,” said Badiola.
Also Badiola ordered that “no postponement shall be granted unless for exceptionally meritorious grounds.”
At the same time, Congresswoman Castro and her witnesseses were ordered to “re-affirm before the undersigned (Badiola) on the same date the veracity and truthfulness of the allegations in their given statement.”
Castro accused Duterte of grave threats under Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Section 6 of Republic Act 10175, also known as the Cybercrime Act.
The complaint arose from the statements issued by Duterte last Oct. 11 on the SMNI program Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa.
During the program, Duterte revealed his advised his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, to tell Congress including Castro that she needs the confidential funds to stop the communist insurgency.
“But your first target there, using your intelligence funds, is you, France, you communists who I want to kill. I asked her to tell them that, but she refused, saying, ‘You know Pa, if I did that, they might harass the PMTs (Philippine Military Training institutions),’” said the former President.