MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice announced on Tuesday, November 26, that it will investigate former President Rodrigo Duterte over his remarks about military intervention in the governance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In an ambush interview with reporters, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said that Duterte’s remark is “bordering on sedition.”
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“I do not know where the president is getting his notion, we have a strong and functioning republic. Civil governance is for civilians, and the military has no role whatsoever,” Andres said in an ambush interview.
“For him to invite the military to have a part in seeking remedy is bordering on sedition and is legally actionable,” he added.
This stemmed from an early morning conference on Tuesday, where Duterte described the Philippines as having "fractured governance" and accused Marcos of being a drug addict.
“There is a fractured governance in the Philippines today. Nobody can correct Marcos, nobody can correct Romualdez…There is no urgent remedy…It is only the military who can correct it,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino at a press conference.
The former president also asked the military: “Until when will you support an addict president? I challenge the whole military because they’re supposed to be the protectors of the Constitution.”
However, the former president did not mention calling a coup d’etat against Marcos.
Duterte has repeatedly accused Marcos of drug use, allegations that Marcos has consistently dismissed.
In response, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin condemned Duterte’s statements, saying that the former president has gone to “great and evil lengths” to see his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte ascend to the presidency.
“No motive is more selfish than calling for a sitting president to be overthrown so that your daughter can take over. And he will go to great and evil lengths, such as insulting our professional armed forces by asking them to betray their oath, for his plan to succeed,” Bersamin said.
“The former president should respect the Constitution, not disobey it. He should desist from being as irresponsible as he has become,” he added.
Weighing double meanings
Andres addressed Duterte's common tactic of retracting contentious statements as jokes or hyperbole, saying that such remarks would be taken in their proper context.
“In legal contemplation, we have to place it in its proper context and ordinary meaning. We must also consider other contemporaneous acts—what you are saying, what you are expressing, and what you are doing,” he said.
Andres also highlighted the gravity of Sara Duterte's admission of hiring someone to target the president, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, emphasizing that it constitutes a direct threat rather than a conditional one.
He stressed that such a statement, coming from a highly influential figure, is a matter of national security, particularly as it involves the country’s elected leader.
“We will not take this lightly and we will address this very seriously,” Andres said.
The former president’s press conference was held a few days after Sara Duterte’s virtual press conference, where she threatened to kill the Marcoses if she were killed.
This prompted the National Bureau of Investigation to issue a subpoena against the vice president, asking her to shed light on the incident. — with reports from Jean Mangaluz.