Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon has opposed Vice President Sara Duterte’s insinuations that victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during her father’s drug war may have been gunned down due to marital squabbles, as she claimed that it is easy to have someone killed.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Ridon said he would not allow the vice president to create a narrative depicting the causes of deaths during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war as unclear, stressing that the cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC) are well-documented.
‘People died because they supposedly fought against law enforcement officers who implemented Duterte’s drug war,’ Ridon said in Filipino.
‘The reason why he is detained at The Hague is not shallow,’ he added.
The elder Duterte is currently detained at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of crimes against humanity. Vice President Duterte recently led a protest rally outside the ICC, where she said that wives who catch their husbands having affairs can easily hire killers for as low as P5,000.
Vice President Duterte, in condemning her father’s continued incarceration at the ICC’s detention center, said the EJKs attributed to his presidency could instead be linked to the country’s rampant gun violence.
She claimed the EJKs cannot be immediately attributed to former President Duterte’s anti-illegal drug campaign, as it is unclear whether all the deaths occurred during legitimate operations.
‘I have a husband. My husband has a mistress. I can hire a gunman for 5,000 pesos to kill the mistress … that is how bad gun violence in the Philippines is. And that is, again, yes, EJK,’ she said.
‘So how can you say that all your listed victims, all your listed complainants are supposed victims of the drug war? How can they say now that all the victims there are victims of the drug war? That is supposed to be a crime against humanity?’ she added.
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said that if Duterte’s intentions were really about curbing violence, she should have provided this information to law enforcement agencies.
The lawmaker also said that Duterte does not have to be an ally of the Marcos administration to report the matter, saying that being vice president alone is enough reason to help fight crime.
‘Her office, being a public office, demands that she at least shares this information if that is what she intends to prove – to remove violent incidents from our streets,’ he added.
Earlier, Ridon asked Duterte whether the P5,000 payment for a hitman she mentioned was what she paid when she threatened to have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his relatives assassinated.
Alonto Adiong, meanwhile, said that it is unacceptable to think that Vice President Duterte even knows how killings can be carried out.
The vice president is facing an impeachment case before the Senate Impeachment Court. Recently, the prosecution panel concluded presenting its evidence and witnesses for Article IV, which addresses the threats mentioned at a November 23, 2024, online press briefing.
As she criticized the House for detaining her chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez, Duterte went online for a briefing to berate the First Couple and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin.
During the same briefing, a vlogger asked Duterte to be careful, as she might be in danger. She replied by urging people not to worry, as she had talked to a person about killing the Marcos couple and Romualdez if she herself were killed.
The defense panel has maintained that Duterte’s statements were protected by free speech, but several government officials and members of the prosecution team believe they constituted a grave threat, regardless of whether the vice president actually entered into a contract with an assassin to kill the president and his family