QC fiscal drops disobedience, assault raps vs Sara Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City prosecutor has dismissed complaints filed by police against Vice President Sara Duterte and her security and protection group over a scuffle involving Duterte’s chief of staff at medical facilities in November 2024.
In a resolution dated Jan. 17, 2025, Assistant City Prosecutor Criscelyn Caryugan-Lugo dropped charges of direct assault, disobedience to authority, and grave coercion against Duterte, Col. Raymund Lachica and others, citing a “failure to sustain a finding of prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction.”
The case was filed by officers from the Quezon City Police District following a commotion at the House of Representatives and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) during the transfer of Duterte’s chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez.
The complainants alleged that Lachica, head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, physically pushed and assaulted a police doctor assigned to assist Lopez during her transfer to the VMMC.
However, the prosecutor stated that the allegations against Lachica were “not supported by evidence,” as none of the witnesses corroborated the police doctor’s claims of being subjected to “attack, physical force, intimidation, resistance, disobedience, violence, or threats.”
“They did not narrate the encounter between the parties in their respective affidavits. They also did not discuss the behavior of (police-doctor) after the incident, which could have persuaded us that he was threatened and intimidated, if at all,” the resolution read.
“The video footage submitted by him also negates his own asseverations. Being so, we are constrained to dismiss the complaint for insufficiency of evidence,” it added.
Lopez was transferred to the VMMC after falling ill, following the House of Representatives Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability's order for her detention at the Women’s Correctional Institution in Mandaluyong City.
She was cited in contempt for “undue interference” during the House panel’s investigation into the alleged misuse of P500 million in confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President and P112.5 million by the Department of Education.
On Dec. 10, 2024, the House panel ordered Zuleika’s release from custody.
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