MANILA: A Filipino congresswoman asked prosecutors on Tuesday to charge former president Rodrigo Duterte after he allegedly threatened to kill her and called her a communist.
House of Representatives Deputy Minority Leader France Castro filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors in Manila, who will decide if there is enough evidence to charge Duterte.
Castro, who represents the leftist ACT Teachers partylist, alleged Duterte committed the crime of “grave threats” under the Cybercrime Prevention Act during an October 10 interview with local broadcaster SMNI.
Duterte gave on-air advice to his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, about how she could use intelligence and confidential funds allocated to her office and the education department, which she also heads.
“Your first target with your intelligence fund is you, you France. Tell her, it is you communists who I want to kill,” Duterte said in the interview that was reshared thousands of times on Facebook. It was later deleted from SMNI’s Facebook page.
The House appropriations committee decided on the same day to divert the funds allocated to some government departments, including the vice president’s office and education, to agencies involved in national security.
In the complaint, Castro said Duterte’s threats were “factually baseless and clearly malicious,” but she could not dismiss them as “figurative, joking, or otherwise benign.”
Castro’s lawyer Antonio La Vina told reporters that it was the first criminal complaint filed against Duterte since he left office.
Duterte was protected from prosecution when he was president, but now that he is an ordinary citizen he can be charged for alleged crimes committed in the Philippines.
La Vina said the maximum penalty for “grave threats” was six years jail and a fine of up to 100,000 pesos ($1,760).
Duterte often threatened to kill people, including drug dealers and rights activists, when he was president from 2016 to 2022.
He also frequently labelled critics as communist sympathizers — a practice known as “red-tagging,” which can result in the arrest, detention or even death of the person targeted.
His signature policy was an anti-narcotics campaign that killed thousands of people and triggered an international investigation into an alleged crime against humanity.
“I was really shocked with the threats,” Castro told reporters Tuesday.
“He can no longer hide. He must be accountable for threatening my life.”
Duterte’s former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea said that Duterte had not yet received the complaint.
Leftist politician asks prosecutors to charge former Philippine president Duterte over death threat
https://arab.news/bchcg
Leftist politician asks prosecutors to charge former Philippine president Duterte over death threat
- House of Representatives member France Castro represents the militant ACT Teachers partylist
Saudi ambassador becomes first foreign envoy to meet Bangladesh’s new PM
- Tarique Rahman took oath as PM last week after landslide election win
- Ambassador Abdullah bin Abiyah also meets Bangladesh’s new FM
Dhaka: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Dhaka became on Sunday the first foreign envoy to meet Bangladesh’s new Prime Minister Tarique Rahman since he assumed the country’s top office.
Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party made a landslide win in the Feb. 12 election, securing an absolute majority with 209 seats in the 300-seat parliament.
The son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and former President and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, he was sworn in as the prime minister last week.
The Saudi government congratulated Rahman on the day he took the oath of office, and the Kingdom’s Ambassador Abdullah bin Abiyah was received by the premier in the Bangladesh Secretariat, where he also met Bangladesh’s new foreign minister.
“Among the ambassadors stationed in Dhaka, this is the first ambassadorial visit with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman since he assumed office,” Saleh Shibli, the prime minister’s press secretary, told Arab News.
“The ambassador conveyed greetings and best wishes to Bangladesh’s prime minister from the king and crown prince of Saudi Arabia … They discussed bilateral matters and ways to strengthen the ties among Muslim countries.”
Rahman’s administration succeeded an interim government that oversaw preparations for the next election following the 2024 student-led uprising, which toppled former leader Sheikh Hasina and ended her Awami League party’s 15-year rule.
New Cabinet members were sworn in during the same ceremony as the prime minister last week.
Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman is a former UN official who served as Bangladesh’s national security adviser during the interim government’s term.
He received Saudi Arabia’s ambassador after the envoy’s meeting with the prime minister.
“The foreign minister expressed appreciation for the Saudi leadership’s role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East and across the Muslim Ummah. He also conveyed gratitude for hosting a large number of Bangladeshi workers in the Kingdom and underscored the significant potential for expanding cooperation across trade, investment, energy, and other priority sectors, leveraging the geostrategic positions of both countries,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The Saudi ambassador expressed his support to the present government and his intention to work with the government to enhance the current bilateral relationship to a comprehensive relationship.”
Around 3.5 million Bangladeshis live and work in Saudi Arabia. They have been joining the Saudi labor market since 1976, when work migration to the Kingdom was established during the rule of the new prime minister’s father.
Bangladeshis are the largest expat group in the Kingdom and the largest Bangladeshi community outside Bangladesh and send home more than $5 billion in remittances every year.
