Vice President Sara Duterte addresses the media at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on November 26, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN NewsMANILA — Anti-poverty czar Larry Gadon on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to disbar Vice President Sara Duterte for her alleged assassination threat against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and some of his family members.

The Supreme Court needs to “initiate a motu propio proceeding of disbarment” against Duterte for issuing statements that were “undoubtedly illegal, immoral and condemnable,” said Gadon, who is also a disbarred lawyer. 

“This live presscon on Zoom was on numerous social media platforms and has been seen by millions of Filipinos, reported on television, radio and newspapers and now has become general public knowledge that the Court may take judicial notice,” Gadon said in a letter he filed before the high court.

“Such statements coming from the second-highest official of the land, seen and heard by millions of Filipinos are undoubtedly illegal, immoral and condemnable,” he said.

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He alleged Duterte’s remark was “a fully constituted plan for murdering three above named individuals as she further affirmed that the assassination plot is not a joke.” 

“She categorically and unequivocally stated that she has talked to someone whom she directed to kill the three of them if she is killed,” Gadon told the court.

The anti-poverty czar said he gave President Marcos Jr. a heads up before filing his disbarment letter against Duterte.

“The President said, ‘Hindi na kailangan. Wag na,’ but he respects my decision,” Gadon told reporters.

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TEST OF SUPREME COURT’S ‘FAIRNESS’

The disbarment letter against the second-highest official in the country will test the Supreme Court’s “fairness,” Gadon said, underscoring the high court’s failure to rule on Duterte’s disbarment case in 2011, when she “punched and inflicted injury to a sheriff who was just enforcing an Order of the Court.”

“She was not disbarred nor at least suspended,” Gadon said in his letter, noting that he, on the other hand, was “suspended by the Supreme Court for one whole year and thereafter disbarred with no entitlement for judicial clemency.”

“Despite the injustice, the unfairness and the extreme discrimination that the undersigned suffered from the Supreme Court, the signatory still believes that the institution will outlive some bias minds and personalities in the High Court,” he said.

“And that the Supreme Court will stand as an institution that truly serves its role of upholding the principles of justice and apply the law against anyone,” he said.

Gadon was disbarred in 2023 for using “misogynistic, sexist, abusive and repeated intemperate language.”

Supreme Court spokesperson Camille Ting said she was not privy to why the magistrates have yet to decide on the pending disbarment case against Duterte, which has languished in the Supreme Court for 11 years.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court said it received an anonymous letter seeking Duterte’s disbarment over her threat to exhume former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. from the Libingan ng mga Bayani and throw his remains in the West Philippine Sea.

The high court has “no action yet,” on the anonymous letter, Ting had told reporters.

Under the law, “proceedings for the disbarment, suspension or discipline of attorneys may be taken by the Supreme Court motu propio, or upon the filing of a verified complaint of any person before the Supreme Court or the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).”

Duterte on Tuesday said her statement was taken out of context. She said the "revenge" plot had a specific condition before it could be put into motion: that she had to die first.

She added that her remark "does not constitute to an active threat."

"Common sense should be enough for us to understand and accept that a supposed conditional act of revenge does not constitute to an active threat. This is plan without a flesh," the Vice President said.

Duterte in 2022 endorsed Gadon’s failed Senate bid.

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