Former Philippine president Duterte denies making death threat

MANILA (AFP): Former president Rodrigo Duterte has denied he threatened to kill a congresswoman and urged state prosecutors to refrain from filing criminal charges against him, according to a deposition made public on Friday.

House of Representatives Deputy Minority Leader France Castro has alleged Duterte threatened her life twice in recent months and asked state prosecutors to charge him.

Duterte sent a written deposition to a Manila prosecutor on Monday after the official summoned him and Castro to present witnesses and supporting documents relating to the first alleged death threat, the justice department said.

“There was never any deliberate intent on my part to single out and threaten complainant Castro,” Duterte said in the deposition, a copy of which was released to the press by the department’s National Prosecution Service.

The case “must be dismissed,” Duterte added.

Castro had alleged that Duterte committed the crime of “grave threats” under the Cybercrime Prevention Act during two interviews with broadcaster SMNI.

On Friday Duterte said he recounted at an October interview advice he had given to his daughter, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, on how she could use intelligence and confidential funds allocated to her office.

“Your first target with your intelligence fund is ‘You, you France’. Tell her, ‘It is you communists who I want to kill’,” Duterte said in the interview.

Duterte said in his deposition that his statements on Castro were just his “opinion and meant only to express… personal suggestion” to his daughter.

Duterte often threatened to kill people, including drug dealers and rights activists, when he was president from 2016 to 2022.

He also frequently labelled critics as communist sympathizers — a practice known as “red-tagging,” which can result in the arrest, detention or even death of the person targeted.

Castro told reporters Friday she expects the prosecutor to decide by next month whether there is enough evidence to charge Duterte in court.