Sara Duterte's lawyer on NBI findings: Evidence is curated, even spliced

A lawyer for Vice President Sara Duterte on Thursday insisted that the evidence presented by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during the impeachment hearing was “curated” and was not a foundation for probable cause. 

This, after NBI Deputy Chief of Staff of Legal Services Atty. Yentl Malicad told the House Committee on Justice on Wednesday that the video of a press conference showing Duterte making a threat to kill President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and his family members in certain circumstances constitutes inciting to sedition and three counts of grave threat. 

Atty. Paul Lawrence Lim, counsel for the Vice President in the NBI complaint, said the presentation only “reveals the paucity of the charges against her.”

“Evidence is curated, even spliced. Context is ignored. Opinion is substituted for facts. Guesswork is presented as investigation results,” Lim said in a statement.

“These cannot be the foundation for probable cause, much less a prima facie case with reasonable certainty of conviction. Simply repeating a conclusion, no matter how vehemently, does not make it true,” he added. 

Lim also said that the attempt to create a causal link or relationship between Duterte and the alleged comments against Marcos “demands a gigantic leap in logic and abandonment of basic evidentiary principles.” 

“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,” he said. 

Online briefing

In an online briefing on November 23, 2024, Duterte said she had ordered someone to kill Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-Speaker Martin Romualdez, if an alleged plot against her were carried out.

The Vice President later said her statement was “maliciously taken out of logical context.”

In December 2024, Duterte said she does not regret saying that she ordered someone to kill the President if she herself gets killed.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Justice, via unanimous vote, found probable cause to impeach Duterte anew based on two impeachment complaints filed against her this year. 

The two impeachment complaints filed against the Vice President accuse her of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, among others, mainly over the following acts: 

• alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential fund and using them as bribes 
• threatening to kill President Marcos, Jr. and his family, including her desire to remove the head of the Chief Executive, and 
• alleged accumulation of unexplained wealth. 

Duterte’s lawyer said that now that the committee hearings are over, “the issue of the alleged commission of crimes will be addressed at the proper fora, where evidence is expected to support judgment, and the rule of law is expected to be respected.” 

“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,” Lim said. — RSJ, GMA News