Quezon City prosecutors have dismissed charges of direct assault, disobedience, and grave coercion against Vice President Sara Duterte and her security chief, Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, due to insufficient evidence.
The Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed charges of direct assault , disobedience, and grave coercion against Vice President Sara Duterte , Vice President ial Security and Protection Group head Col. Raymund Dante Lachica , and several others on Tuesday. The case stemmed from an incident in November 2024.
In a 13-page resolution, Assistant City Prosecutor Criscelyn Carayugan-Lugo stated there was no prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction to indict Duterte and Lachica for the specified offenses. Carayugan-Lugo argued that Duterte and Lachica's actions could not be classified as direct assault because they did not attack, use physical force, seriously intimidate, or seriously resist Police Lt. Col. (Van Jason) Villamor. She explained that placing a hand on someone's chest, pushing, and shoving do not constitute an attack or physical force. To be considered direct assault, the use of force must be more severe than just slapping and punching, which was not the case in this instance. The prosecutor also stated that the complainants failed to present convincing evidence against Duterte, Lachica, and the others involved in the incident. Villamor, a police officer and medical doctor, filed the complaint following a tense situation when Duterte's chief of staff, lawyer Zuleika Lopez, was being transferred from a detention facility at the House of Representatives to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) last year
Philippine Politics Sara Duterte Vice President Charges Dismissed Col. Raymund Dante Lachica Direct Assault Disobedience Grave Coercion
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