Assault complaint vs VP Sara Duterte junked | ABS-CBN

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Assault complaint vs VP Sara Duterte junked

Assault complaint vs VP Sara Duterte junked

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Updated Jan 28, 2025 06:26 PM PHT

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Vice President Sara Duterte, December 11, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA (2nd UPDATE) — The Quezon City Prosecutor's Office has junked the assault complaint that police filed against Vice President Sara Duterte in connection to the hospital transfer of her aide last year. 

The Quezon City Police District had accused Duterte, the head of her security detail, and others of direct assault, disobedience to authority, and grave coercion during the alleged “forced transfer” of Office of the Vice President (OVP) chief of staff Zuleika Lopez to a private hospital.

Lopez, ordered detained at the House of Representatives, reportedly fell ill after being told that she was being transferred to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City. The House at that time was looking into the OVP’s fund use.

Police said videos showed that Duterte’s security head, Army Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, physically assaulted police doctor Lt. Gen. Van Jason Villamor during the Nov. 23, 2024 incident.

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RESOLUTION

But In a resolution dated Jan. 17, Assistant City Prosecutor Criscelyn Carayugan-Lugo found that "there is no prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction to indict [Duterte] and [Lachica] for Direct Assault, Disobedience of Authority and Grave Coercion."

The prosecutor said Duterte and Lachica's acts cannot be considered direct assault since they "did not attack, employ material force, seriously intimidate or seriously resist Police Lt. Col Villamor."

"The acts of placing a hand over the chest, pushing, and shoving do not constitute attack or physical force. To be considered as Direct Assault, the laying of hands or the use of physical force must be serious. The force exerted must be more severe than just slapping and punching. This is not the case here. Clearly, the acts attributed to VP Duterte-Carpio and Col Lachica do not satisfy the stringent criteria for Direct Assault to ensue," the resolution read.

With regard to the disobedience to authority complaint, the prosecutor's office opined that Villamor was "not a person in authority."

"While it is true that Villamor was wearing a police uniform during the incident, the fact remains that he was not in the act of discharging the official functions of his office that time. As such, we deem that during the incident, he exceeded his powers and was not engaged in the actual performance of his official duties or on the occasion of such performance," the resolution said.

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The prosecutor also rejected Villamor's claim that Duterte and Lachica committed grave coercion with their utterances and acts since the element of "violence, threats or intimidation" was not satisfied. 

"The second element was not shown to exist. The assailed acts of placing a hand on the chest, pushing and shoving fall-short of violence, either actual or imminent... The challenged utterances... are not at all threatening; nor do they qualify as intimidation, as discussed above," Carayugan-Lugo said.

'DISMISSED'

Carayugan-Lugo said that due to the "insufficiency of evidence," they are "constrained to dismiss the complaint."

"The alleged commission of Direct Assault, Disobedience to Authority and Grave Coercion is not supported by evidence... The video footage submitted by him also negates his own asseverations. Being so, we are constrained to dismiss the complaint for insufficiency of evidence," the prosecutor said.

"In light of the foregoing considerations, the complaint for Direct Assault, Disobedience to Authority, and Grave Coercion... against respondents [Duterte] and [Lachica] is recommended to be dismissed for failure to sustain a finding of prima face evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction," the resolution read.

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