The grave threats made by Vice President Sara Duterte against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House speaker Martin Romualdez in an online news conference on Nov. 23, 2024, were “serious, true, and real” as well as “alarming,” according to a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) executive.
Lawyer Jeremy Lotoc, who was part of the team that investigated Duterte’s threats against the President, his wife, and cousin, made those statements as witness during her impeachment trial, which started its second week on Monday, July 13.
He also said that the Vice President had already contracted someone to kill them even before she made those threats in that online presser.
Lotoc, NBI director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, disputed Duterte’s defense that she made those threats in her exercise of freedom of speech. Publicly claiming to have hired someone to kill the highest official of the country was beyond the bounds of free speech, Lotoc said.
“Imagine, your honor, the anarchy, the disorder, and the chaos it would bring to the country,” said the official, who led the probe when he was chief of the NBI cybercrime division.
Lotoc was the second witness of House prosecutors on Day 4 of the impeachment trial, where they continued to provide evidence on Article IV of the articles of impeachment that pertains to her assassination threats against Mr. Marcos.
The over six-hour trial focused on Lotoc’s testimony on the NBI investigation of Duterte’s assassination threats, which included getting the testimony of journalists who took part in the online news conference.
‘Not merely joking’
Private prosecutor lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan said their side will show that Duterte was “not merely joking when she uttered those threats.”
Lotoc said he was directed by then NBI Chief Jaime Santiago to look into Duterte’s death threats against the President, and that he sent a subpoena to her on Nov. 24, 2024, but she did not appear.
Through Ligutan’s questioning, Lotoc said Duterte’s lawyer, Lawrence Lim, sent a letter to the NBI on Nov. 28, 2024, to get a copy of the complaint against her. Lotoc said a second subpoena was issued to Duterte on Dec. 2, 2024.
“We told her we were investigating the alleged threats to her life,” he said, and they wanted to talk to her about it. But they did not get any validated information to start an inquiry.
He said their investigation sought to “determine whether those utterances [by Duterte]” were made out of “temporary fits of anger.”
4 factors
Lotoc cited four factors in determining Duterte’s threats as “serious and true”: “the delivery or manner by which the utterances were spoken, the literal meaning of those statements, the nature of instructions, and the relationship between the parties.”
Lotoc said Duterte’s statement to kill Marcos is “indicative of intent” and “shows serious, actual, and real threat.”
“In those utterances, the Vice President said: ‘Don’t stop until you kill them.’ It shows persistence on the part of the Vice President. She was determined to carry out those utterances, and from the point of view of law enforcement like the NBI, it’s alarming to us,” he said.
Some group or individual “may take advantage” of those statements, he explained, pointing out that this could “lead to chaos and anarchy” if not addressed.
Asked by Ligutan what Lotoc did after their investigation, he said they executed an affidavit of investigation on Feb. 10, 2025, and recommended charges against Duterte—three counts of grave threats and one count of inciting to sedition. The case is still pending before the Department of Justice.
Freedom of speech
Lotoc said freedom of speech does not cover statements that may constitute a criminal offense.
“We failed to see any amount of freedom of speech in [Duterte’s] utterances,” he said, adding, “We talked to ourselves: If we allow that to become norms of our society, then who would prevent anybody from doing the same to anyone?”
At the trial, Senate presiding officer Francis Escudero said the court will issue a subpoena for NBI Director Melvin Matibag to testify on July 20.
House prosecutors had earlier asked the court to allow Matibag to testify on Tuesday, July 14, because he needed to attend a regional forum on transnational crimes, but Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano objected as this violated the five-day notice requirement for witnesses. CS
