By: Aishah Jimenez
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Castro suit against former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is dismissed following a supposed "lack of evidence" from the prosecution. Photo courtesy of CNN Philippines.
The Quezon City (QC) Prosecutor’s Office has dropped the grave threat suit and complaint lodged by ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro against former President Rodrigo Duterte following his multiple violative remarks against progressive individuals.
In a 14-page resolution dated January 9, 2024, the QC prosecution decided to reject the aforesaid complaint "for want of sufficient evidence."
"After careful and judicious evaluation of the allegations and evidence obtaining in the complaint, the undersigned finds the same to be insufficient to indict the respondent for the crime charged against him," the resolution wrote.
The prosecution pointed out that the grave threats contained in Castro's complaint came from YouTube and Facebook, which needed to be thoroughly verified and authorized by its sources for its specific use to ensure the cited threatening remarks were accurately acknowledged or taken from the original material.
In this case, however, it was discovered that Castro was unable to secure the required authorization or certification from Facebook, Youtube, or SMNI, the network where Duterte allegedly declared threats.
Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Ulric Q. Badiola expressed that if Duterte had intended to intimidate Castro, he would not have taken so many prologues and would have made the threats directly and immediately.
"The Office finds it quite unusual, if not ridiculous for a person to make a public pronouncement of death threats, especially so considering that such individual, like [the] respondent, is already in an advance age and not anymore immune from criminal prosecution as he is not anymore the president of the country," Badiola said.
The said suit against ex-president Duterte is rooted from the instance when in an episode of his TV show “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” on the SMNI News Channel aired on November 16, where Duterte linked Castro to the communist armed movement. It was also claimed he spoke about Castro being the first to be executed.
Duterte did not make any appearance throughout the two schedules allotted for the complaint’s preliminary investigation.
Although Castro’s camp has not yet officially received the prosecutor's decision, she has already expressed her dismay as she believed she had been robbed of justice.