Assault charges vs. Mayor Sara Duterte

Assault charges vs. Mayor Sara Duterte

The Sheriffs Confederation of the Philippines on Monday filed assault and grave misconduct charges against Davao Mayor Sara Duterte for punching Sheriff Abe Andres for serving a demolition order against squatters on July 1.

Wearing black arm bands and shirts, some of the group’s members gathered in the Office of the Ombudsman to file their complaint, saying they were doing so because Andres had refused to do so.
Group spokesman Ruben Almadro said the attack on Andres, an officer of the court, was an assault on the system of justice.

He was dismayed at Duterte’s lack of remorse over the “unprovoked and unjustified attack,” and for claiming she was answerable only to the people of Davao City.

“Duterte is answerable to the secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and to the President,” Almadro said.

“And being a lawyer, she owes fealty to the courts.”

Andres had earlier apologized to the mayor for refusing to heed her request to delay the court-ordered demolition for two hours.

Earlier, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said he would send the results of an investigation of the incident to President Benigno Aquino III this week. But his department may not file charges because it could not be an investigator and a complainant at the same time.

A spokesman for the Ombudsman, Mary Rawnsle Lopez, said they would take the results of the investigation into account.

Also on Monday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she was still waiting for a Bureau of Immigration report to determine if Senator Panfilo Lacson, who returned to the Philippines more than three months ago, had used fake documents while hiding from law enforcement agents to avoid arrest on murder charges.

Her statement came after the Foreign Affairs Department said it had determined that Lacson’s travel papers must have been fake, and that there had been irregularities in the passport he had used.

But De Lima, who had said she would pursue the case on Lacson’s return in March, said she would also take into account the senator’s insistence that his papers were authentic.

She said last month that she expected a difficult time getting confirmed because of Lacson’s membership of the powerful Appointments Commission. Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rey E. Requejo