I’d rather go to jail – Duterte

FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night said he would rather go to jail than appear before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, which has issued a subpoena against him in connection with the criminal complaint for grave threat filed by Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT).

“Magpakulong na lang ako. Ino-oppress ako ni France (I would rather go to jail. I am being oppressed by France [Castro]),” Duterte said in his program “Gikan Sa Masa, Para sa Masa” that aired over Sonshine Media International Inc. on late Wednesday night.

The former president made the statement when asked to react to the QC prosecutor’s order for him to attend the preliminary investigation set on December 4 and 11.

Quezon City Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Ulric Badiola has also directed Duterte to submit his response to Castro’s complaint, which was filed last October 24.

Castro, a member of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives and a minority leader, sued the former chief executive for the death threats he made during an interview in early October in the same SMNI program, which she alleged violated Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code and Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Duterte supposedly made the threats after Castro questioned the confidential funds that was initially given to the office of Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president.

“Hearing respondent Duterte, the immediate former president of the Philippines, father of the incumbent Vice President of the country and a self-confessed murderer, call my name multiple times and made grave threats to kill me made me immensely fearful for my life, safety and security,” Castro said in her complaint.

Castro, along with her Makabayan bloc colleagues, has been very vocal in criticizing the Vice President for her request of P650 million in confidential funds – P500 million for the Office of the Vice President and P150 million for the Department of Education, which the younger Duterte also heads as concurrent education secretary.

The House of Representatives has decided to realign the confidential funds of the OVP and the DepEd, along with the confidential fund requests of other