Former Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo and National Bureau of Investigation Chief Jaime Santiago
MANILA, Philippines – Former Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo took a swipe at National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Chief Jaime Santiago for filing “baseless” charges against the Vice President Sara Duterte.
On Wednesday, the NBI filed incitement to sedition and grave threats against Duterte over her pronouncement of having hired an assassin to murder President Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez the moment she gets killed first.
In a statement, Panelo slammed Santiago by telling him to “go back to law school” following the NBI’s move to recommend filing criminal charges against Duterte.
“His agency’s recommendation to file criminal charges of Grave Threats and Inciting to Sedition against VP Sara has no basis in fact and in law,” Panelo said.
“It obviously is tainted with politics, and still part of the demolition job on her by her political enemies to put her out of contention in the presidential race of 2028,” Panelo said.
Santiago said Duterte’s “threatening remarks” were enough to satisfy the elements of grave threat.
Panlo believes otherwise because for him, “there can be no crime of a “ threat “ from the grave.”
As for incitement to sedition, Santiago said Duterte’s threat sounded like an invitation to the public to also go against the government.
Panelo rebutted this.
“Neither has VP Sara publicly and tumultuously incited the people to perform acts of sedition as defined by law or to go against the constituted authorities or to stop the enforcement of laws,” Panelo said.
The former Presidential Spokesperson said the NBI should instead focus on going after criminals instead of “harassing VP Sara with ludicrous baseless criminal complaints” which for him is a “waste of taxpayers money.”
Santiago said their recommendation to file criminal charges was a result of the judicial judgment of a team of five lawyers, including himself, to review the case of Duterte. Unanimously, they arrived at a decision to file cases because of the merits of evidence.
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Republika News 
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