ACT Teachers Party-list Representative France Castro filed on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, criminal complaints against former President Rodrigo Duterte in relation to the threats he made against the latter during a television interview.
Castro filed charges for violation of Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code or grave threats against Duterte before the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office.
In an interview, Castro expressed belief that the threats against her by Duterte are related to her efforts to look into the confidential funds of the Department of Education (DepEd), as well as of the Office of the Vice President (OVP), which is both under Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio.
The House of Representatives earlier stripped the DepEd and OVP of their confidential funds and reallocated the budget to government agencies in charge of securing the country’s territory at the West Philippine Sea amid the continuous harassment of China.
The older Duterte defended his daughter’s request for confidential funds -- P650 million for the OVP and P150 million for the DepEd, which according to him is intended to be used to stop communist insurgency.
He tagged Castro as a communist, and said he wants to kill them.
“I told Inday (Sara), to be direct, tell them that the intelligence fund is meant to prepare the minds of the Filipinos, to address the insurgency that is taking a long time to end. And the ROTC so that we are prepared for war, especially in this situation, if we do not have soldiers, then we will have the youth who can take care of their respective barangays,” the former President said.
“But your first target there, using your intelligence funds, is you, France, you communists who I want to kill. I asked her to tell them that, but she refused, saying ‘You know Pa if I did that, they might harass the PMTs,’” he added. (SunStar Philippines)