Sara Duterte's legal team denies sedition and grave threats allegations
THE camp of Vice President Sara Duterte pushed back on Thursday, April 30, 2026, against allegations raised during a recent congressional hearing, arguing that the evidence presented to support claims of inciting to sedition and grave threats is weak and improperly constructed.
In a statement, lawyer Paul Lawrence Lim, counsel for the Vice President, said the presentation made by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during the April 29 hearing of the House Committee on Justice "publicly reveals the paucity of the charges" against Duterte.
Lim said the evidence cited by investigators was "curated" and "even spliced," alleging that context was ignored while opinions and "guesswork" were presented as factual findings. He argued that such materials fall short of establishing probable cause, much less a case that could lead to conviction.
"Simply repeating a conclusion, no matter how vehemently, does not make it true," Lim said.
The NBI earlier said that remarks of Duterte that she had ordered someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez in the event of her own death, could constitute grave threats and inciting to sedition.
According to the NBI, the results of its investigation have already been submitted to the Department of Justice for preliminary investigation.
However, Duterte's camp disputed any direct link between the Vice President and alleged threats against the President, describing attempts to establish such a connection as requiring a "gigantic leap in logic."
"The non-existent connection to the Vice President is posed as a mystery still under investigation with no immediate answer, but strategically implies guilt. This excites judgment without evidence," Lim said.
"If there is anything that was proved by yesterday's proceedings, it is to confirm that it is and has always been a fishing expedition aimed at giving a semblance of substance to the defective impeachment complaints," he added.
With the House committee hearings concluded, Duterte's legal team said the matter should now be resolved in appropriate legal forums, where evidence would be properly scrutinized and the rule of law upheld.
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