A member of the House of Representatives lodged a complaint against former President Rodrigo Duterte with the Office of the City Prosecutor in Quezon City.
ACT Teachers Representative France Castro accused Duterte of issuing serious threats under Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
These allegations stemmed from remarks Duterte made earlier in the month during an SMNI program, where he discussed Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte’s plans for confidential funds.
The former president was quoted as saying: “I told her to be straightforward. This intelligence fund, I will use for the benefit of the Filipino people’s interests because my target is the communists in Congress.”
He added, “But your initial target for your intelligence fund is France, the communists I want to eliminate. You can relay this to her,” in Filipino.
In the 2024 national budget bill, the House redirected P1.23 billion originally allocated for confidential funds of various government agencies.
Marikina City 2nd District Representative Stella Quimbo explained that these funds were reassigned “to safeguard the West Philippine Sea.”
Of the total P1.23 billion, P1.05 billion came from the Office of the Vice President (OVP), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and Department of Agriculture (DA).
Notably, these agencies would receive no confidential funds in the 2024 national budget bill.
(ai/mnm)